Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2005 APS April Meeting
Saturday–Tuesday, April 16–19, 2005; Tampa, FL
Session M9: Gamma Ray Bursts II |
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Sponsoring Units: DAP Chair: Neil Gehrels, Goddard Space Flight Center Room: Marriott Tampa Waterside Room 5 |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 3:15PM - 3:27PM |
M9.00001: Early Results from the Swift X-ray Telescope David Burrows The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer was launched on November 20, 2004. The Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT) is designed to perform autonomous observations of gamma-ray bursts within a minute after the burst occurs. We present early calibration results from the on-orbit calibration program, along with early results of GRB afterglows observed by the XRT. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 3:27PM - 3:39PM |
M9.00002: On-Orbit Results from the Swift UVOT Pete Roming, Alex Blustin, Padi Boyd, Alice Breeveld, Massimiliano De Pasquale, Neil Gehrels, Caryl Gronwall, Stephen Holland, Sally Hunsberger, Mariya Ivanushkina, Cynthia James, Wayne Landsman, Keith Mason, Katie McGowan, John Nousek, Simon Rosen, Tracey Poole, Martin Still After the launch of the Swift MIDEX Mission on November 20, 2004, the Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) onboard the Swift Observatory was commissioned and is providing data on gamma-ray burst afterglows. As part of the commissioning process, the UVOT went through a rigorous calibration program. In this presentation, selected results from the calibration program as well as initial science results from the UVOT are presented. This work is sponsored at Penn State by NASA's Office of Space Science through contract NAS5-00136, and at MSSL by funding from PPARC. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 3:39PM - 3:51PM |
M9.00003: Swift/BAT Instrument Performance and Status Jay Cummings The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) is one of three telescopes aboard the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer that was launched on November 20, 2004. Swift's primary purpose is to identify and localize astronomical gamma-ray bursts and study their X-ray, UV and optical afterglow emission within seconds of the burst trigger. BAT provides the initial burst positions, as well as gamma-ray light curves and spectra within a 15-150 keV band. BAT is a coded aperture imaging telescope with a wide ($\sim$2 sr) field of view consisting of a large coded mask located 1 m above a 5200 cm$^{2}$ array of 32,768 CZT detectors. As of the time of this abstract submission, BAT has detected and located onboard 9 bursts. In addition, some faint bursts that were not imaged with sufficient significance onboard have been found in the ground analysis. BAT triggered and imaged outbursts of known sources as well, and will, when automatic slews are enabled, automatically request spacecraft slews to sources of sufficient interest. By the time of the conference we expect to report on the detection and automatic response of BAT and Swift to tens of bursts and transients. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 3:51PM - 4:03PM |
M9.00004: Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by the Swift/BAT Instrument Scott Barthelmy The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) is one of the three instruments on the Swift MIDEX spacecraft to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The BAT first detects the GRB and localizes the burst direction to an accuracy of 1-4 arc minutes within 20 seconds after the start of the event. The burst information including location, light curve and rough measures of fluence are sent to the ground immediately and disseminated to the observing community via the GRB Coordinates Network. Fully automated GRB notification has now been enabled. The BAT first detected and imaged a GRB on 17 December, 2004 and has detected a large number of bursts since that time. Many of these bursts have been localized either by the Swift narrow-field instruments, other satellite instruments or by ground-based observations. A summary of the Swift/BAT detected GRBs will be presented, along with a discussion of the most important bursts including GRB 0401219. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 4:03PM - 4:15PM |
M9.00005: Swift/BAT Detected Survey Sources Craig Markwardt The Swift gamma-ray burst observatory was launched on November 20, 2004. The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) is a wide-field coded-aperture telescope on board Swift, which will detect gamma-ray bursts and initiate autonomous follow-up observations by two narrow field instruments. While Swift is waiting for gamma-ray burst triggers, the BAT observes the sky in survey mode. With a large field of view ($>$ 2 sr), many galactic and extra-galactic X/gamma-ray sources are observed in each BAT pointing. We present a BAT all-sky map in the 15-200 keV band for the first few months of operations. At least forty known sources are detected, and we will discuss newly detected sources. The BAT survey sensitivity is comparable to that expected before launch. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 4:15PM - 4:27PM |
M9.00006: The Giant Flare from SGR 1806-20 David Palmer The Soft Gamma Repeater SGR 1806-20 produced a giant flare on 2004-Dec-27, the brightest gamma-ray source ever seen from outside the solar system. This superburst was seen by many instruments across the solar system, including the BAT gamma-ray telescope on the newly-launched Swift satellite. Results from this and other instruments will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 17, 2005 4:27PM - 4:39PM |
M9.00007: Did a Gamma-Ray Burst Initiate the Ordovician Extinction? Adrian Melott A GRB within our galaxy could have catastrophic consequences for the Earth. Extrapolations from the global rate suggest an average interval of 0.1 to 1 Gy for events in which the Earth is irradiated from a distance of a few kpc. Prompt emission would irradiate the surface with UV at least as intense as the present solar IR/visible/UV flux. The atmosphere would become heavily ionized, resulting in major destruction of the ozone layer. Both the prompt UV and that resulting from long-term loss of the ozone layer are destructive to living organisms. The attenuation length of UV in water is tens of meters. There is a strong candidate for a GRB based mass extinction in the late Ordovician, 440 My ago. Planktonic organisms and those animals living in shallow water seem to have been particularly hard hit during this mass extinction. We present the results of of a series of simulations of the response of the Earth's atmospheric chemistry and the resulting ozone flux to a plausible Milky Way gamma ray burst. \href{\l}{http://kusmos.phsx.ku.edu/$\sim $melott/Astrobiology.htm} [Preview Abstract] |
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