Swift Discovery

An article recently published in Nature (vol 436, p. 985, 2005 Aug. 18) by a consortium including Peter Meszaros and colleagues from Penn State and several international institutions reports on a new result on cosmic gamma-ray bursts. This was obtained with the Swift scientific satellite, which is operated from Penn State. It shows that, following the prompt gamma-ray emission, the burst luminosity suffers a previously unsuspected, very steep decline, visible in the X-ray afterglow, which after an hour or so changes to a more gradual decline lasting for days.

More about the Swift Discovery.