Supernovae shed light on gamma-ray bursts

DELLA VALLE, MASSIMO; MALESANI, DANIELE; CHINCARINI, GUIDO; STELLA, LUIGI; TAGLIAFERRI, GIANPIERO; ANTONELLI, LUCIO ANGELO; CAMPANA, SERGIO; COVINO, STEFANO; FIORE, FABRIZIO; GEHRELS, NEIL; HURLEY, KEVIN; PELLIZZA, LEONARDO J.; ZERBI, FILIPPO MARIA; ANGELINI, LORELLA; BURDERI, LUCIANO; BURROWS, DAVE; CAPALBI, MILVIA; CARAVEO, PATRIZIA; COSTA, ENRICO; CUSUMANO, GIANCARLO; FILLIATRE, PHILIPPE; FUGAZZA, DINO; GILMOZZI, ROBERTO; GIOMMI, PAOLO; GOLDONI, PAOLO; ISRAEL, GIAN LUCA; MASON, ELENA; MASON, KEITH; MELANDRI, ANDREA; MEREGHETTI, SANDRO; MIRABEL, I. FELIX; MOLINARI, EMILIO; MORETTI, ALBERTO; NOUSEK, JOHN; O'BRIEN, PAUL; OSBORNE, JULIAN; PERNA, ROSALBA; PERRI, MATTEO; PIRO, LUIGI; PUCHNAREWICZ, ELIZABETH; VIETRI, MARIO

The Messenger

ESO

Lugar: Garching; Año: 2004 vol. 118 p. 31 - 34

0722-6691

We have believed for decades that supernovae were the most magnificent and energetic phenomena occurring in the Universe after the Big Bang. Today we know that this is only a part of the story. Astronomers have discovered that comparable amounts of energy (or even more) are released, in a few seconds, by gamma-ray bursts. Recently it was determined that these two classes of events have a deep connection. In this article we report the observations of supernovae associated with gamma-ray bursts carried out at ESO by our group. We also briefly review the status of the supernova/gamma-ray burst connection and highlight the open questions.