1 / 28

Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes

Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes. Michael I. Andersen Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam. Introduction. GRB intro, BATSE, a Gamma-ray view The Beppo-SAX revolution GRB science with robotic telescopes. First robotic GRB observation. BATSE light curves.

darena
Télécharger la présentation

Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes Michael I. Andersen AstrophysikalischesInstitutPotsdam

  2. Introduction • GRB intro, BATSE, a Gamma-ray view • The Beppo-SAX revolution • GRB science with robotic telescopes

  3. First robotic GRB observation

  4. BATSE light curves

  5. Hardness vs. duration

  6. GRB durations

  7. The BATSE sky

  8. Beppo-SAX

  9. GRB970228 in X-ray

  10. The first optical afterglow

  11. GRB990123 with ROTSE

  12. Redshift = 1.60

  13. Brightest object ever observed

  14. GRB990123 brightness If in M31 – brighter than the moon! If in Orion Nebula – brighter than the sun! What about four orders of magnitude more energy in Gamma-rays..... (its a planet-blaster!)

  15. GRB990705 host galaxy

  16. GRB000926: spectrum (z=2.0338)

  17. GRBs on the galactic plane

  18. GRBs – where are we now? • GRBs can be observed anywhere in the Universe (even if highly obscured!) • The energy is released through the interaction of an ultra-relativistic blast-wave with circum-burst medium • Caused by the core-collaps of a massive star (i.e. a star formation tracer) • Extremely broad optical luminosity function

  19. Science with GRBs • Extreme physics • The star formation history of the Universe • The chemical enrichment of the Universe • Tracing galaxy formation and evolution • Finding the first stars • Stellar evolution • And much more...........

  20. Robotic telescopes and GRBs:triggering larger telescopes • You don’t need large aperture • Front-line instrumentation not required • Better be fast! • Software for fast reduction critical

  21. Robotic GRB science • Monitoring light curves • Early spectroscopy, witness the interaction of the blast wave with the circum-burst medium (VLT Rapid Response Mode not fast enough) • Early polarization monitoring

  22. The SWIFT mission • Provides about 100 localisations/year • Accurate to about 4 arcmin • Delay less than one minute • Launch fall 2004

  23. Robotic telescopes in theSWIFT era • RT’s crusial for prompt follow-up and afterglow identification • Can aid observations at larger telescopes by providing magnitude predictions • Testing achromatic evolution through high precision multi-color photometry

  24. SWIFT GRB load on RT’s • Two in three goes off during telescope-closed time • Two in three are not in the visible sky • One in three goes off during bad weather Any site will at most have 10 rapid responses annually GRBs can’t occupy more than 5-10% of the telescope time

  25. A need for coordination • We should in general avoid duplicating efforts on monitoring light curves • However – we should also avoid that no data are taken • Pooling data in joint publications becomes ever more important with SWIFT

More Related