Gamma Ray Burst Recorded

Astronomers have recorded visible light from the source of a gamma ray burst for the first time.

The gamma ray burst was detected by two orbiting observatories at 4:47 a.m. EST Saturday.

Officials said the stellar eruption, which originated about 10 billion light years away, was so powerful that it could have been sighted from the ground with binoculars in visible light.

Gamma ray bursts happen several times a week, but they come and go so fast astronomers have never before been able to link their detection with optical observations.

"If the burst had occurred somewhere in our galactic neighborhood, it would have been so bright that night would've turned into day," said Chryssa Kouveliotou of the Universities Space Research Association, a contract science group at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NASA said that the burst appeared to originate from near the constellation Corona Borealis, which is visible in the predawn northern sky.

The gamma ray burst phenomenon was discovered in 1967. Since the rays are invisible to the naked eye, the eruptions were unknown until the development of gamma ray detectors.
Astronomers do not know the origin or precise cause of the bursts. Some speculate that they originate from black holes.

They occur randomly across the sky several hundred times a year, with the peak of each burst lasting from a few milliseconds to a few minutes.