X-ray spectrum of the afterglow of GRB011211 | ||||
Minimum credit line: Image courtesy of ESA. (for details, see Conditions of Use). Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO The image above can be displayed at full size and may be downloaded by clicking the image above. |
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The gamma-ray burst GRB011211 was first detected on 11 December 2001 at 19:09:21 UT, by the Beppo-SAX satellite; the burst duration was 270 s (making GRB011211 the longest burst observed by Beppo-SAX), with a peak flux (40-700 keV) of 5 10-8 erg cm-2 s-1. Spectroscopy of the optical afterglow revealed several absorption lines at a redshift of z = 2.141+-0.001, and R-band imaging has linked the optical transient with extended emission - the probable host galaxy - of magnitude mv = 25.0+-0.5. Assuming the absorption system arises from the GRB host galaxy, and adopting a cosmology of H0 = 75 km s-1 Mpc-1 and q0 = 0.1, implies a total equivalent isotropic energy for GRB011211 of 5 1052 erg. The observations of GRB011211 by the orbiting XMM-Newton X-ray telescope started at 06:16:56 UT on 12 December 2001, 11 hours after the initial burst. Data from the European Photon Imaging Cameras (EPIC) have been analysed, using both the MOS and pn instruments; the total observation duration is 27 ks. The time-averaged 0.2–10 keV flux, F, was 1.9 10-13 erg cm-2 s-1, decreasing with time t during the observation as F(t) proportional to t-(1.7+-0.2). The Optical Monitor detected the burst afterglow in both the visible and ultraviolet (UVW1) bands, with magnitudes of 21.12+-0.13 and 21.6+-0.3, respectively. The image shows the XMM-Newton EPIC-pn spectrum of the GRB011211 afterglow, for the first 5 ks of exposure only. The observations strongly favour models where a supernova explosion from a massive stellar progenitor precedes the burst event and is responsible for the outflowing matter. Investigator(s): J. N. Reeves
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