News and Events from 2005
November 26, 2005
Integral Reveals New Class Of 'Supergiant' X-ray Binary Stars
ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory has discovered a new, highly populated class of X-ray fast 'transient' binary stars, undetected in previous observations.
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October 5, 2005
In A Flash Nasa Helps Solve 35-Year-Old Cosmic Mystery
Scientists have solved the 35-year-old mystery of the origin of powerful, split-second flashes of light known as short gamma-ray bursts. These flashes, brighter than a billion suns, yet lasting only a few milliseconds, have been simply too fast to catch -- until now.
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September 12, 2005
Most Distant Explosion Detected, Smashes Previous Record
Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite and several ground-based telescopes have detected the most distant explosion yet, a gamma-ray burst from the edge of the visible universe.
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August 18, 2005
NASA's Swift Satellite Finds Newborn Black Holes
Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite say they have found newborn black holes, just seconds old, in a confused state of existence. The holes are consuming material falling into them while somehow propelling other material away at great speeds.
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May 11, 2005
NASA Scientists Catch Unique Gamma-ray Burst
NASA scientists have, for the first time, detected and pinned down the location of a short gamma-ray burst, lasting only 50 milliseconds.
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March 25, 2005
New Image of Earth, Seen Through Gamma-ray Eyes
A NASA-funded scientist has produced a new type of picture of the Earth from space, which complements the familiar image of our "blue marble". This new picture is the first detailed image of our planet radiating gamma rays, a type of light that is millions to billions of times more energetic than visible light.
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Feb. 18, 2005
NASA Observes One Of Brightest Cosmic Explosions
Scientists detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful; it bounced off the moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System, and it lasted over a tenth of a second.
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January 5, 2005
NASA Swift Mission Turns On And Sees A Blast Of Bursts
The NASA-led Swift mission opened its doors to a flurry of gamma ray burst action. Scientists were still calibrating the main instrument, the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), when the first burst appeared on December 17. Three bursts on December 19, and one on December 20, followed.
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