A brief but bright flash of optical radiation has been captured only 30 seconds after the onset of a gamma-ray burst. Produced in the interior of the shocked relativistic jet that powered the burst, the optical flash reveals the jet to be narrow and magnetized.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Akerlof, C. et al. Observation of contemporaneous optical radiation from a γ-ray burst. Nature 398, 400–402 (1999). This paper reports the first detection of bright optical radiation during the prompt emission of a GRB.
Racusin, J. L. et al. Broadband observations of the naked-eye γ-ray burst GRB080319B. Nature 455, 183–188 (2008). This paper reports the first fully simultaneous observations of optical emission from GRB080319B over its whole duration.
Mészáros, P. & Rees, M. J. Optical and long-wavelength afterglow from gamma-ray bursts. Astrophys. J. 476, 232–237 (1997). This paper contains the prediction of the optical emission from the reverse shock in the GRB jet.
Gao, H. & Mészáros, P. Reverse shock emission in gamma-ray bursts revisited. Adv. Astron. 2015, 192383 (2015). This review article summarizes the standard and extended models of the reverse shock in GRB jets, and the observations.
Beskin, G. M. et al. Wide-field optical monitoring with Mini-MegaTORTORA (MMT-9) multichannel high temporal resolution telescope. Astrophys. Bull. 72, 81–92 (2017). This paper outlines the methodology for searching for fast optical transients by continuous monitoring of the sky using wide-field cameras with high temporal resolution.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This is a summary of: Oganesyan, G. et al. Exceptionally bright optical emission from a rare and distant gamma-ray burst. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01972-4 (2023).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
An intense visible flash from a distant gamma-ray burst. Nat Astron 7, 769–770 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01985-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01985-z
