Host galaxy spectrum (postscript) ,
and its caption (text)
Keck images of the field of GRB 971214. Images of the GRB 971214 field, obtained with the W.M. Keck 10-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The image on the left (available as GIF , JPEG , or TIFF ) shows the visible-light afterglow of the burst (marked with an arrow). It was obtained about two days after the burst, while it was still relatively bright. The image on the right (available as GIF , JPEG , or TIFF ) shows the same field as seen about two months later, after the burst afterglow has faded away, revealing a faint galaxy at its position (also marked with an arrow). The measurement of its distance shows it to be some 12 billion light years away (assuming the current best guess of the age of the universe of about 14 billion years).
Image credit: S. G. Djorgovski and S. R. Kulkarni / W. M. Keck Observatory
The image of the GRB 971214 field, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope about four months after the burst, well after the afterglow has faded away. The extremely faint and distant galaxy (marked with an arrow) is the host galaxy of the gamma-ray burst. It was discovered earlier using the Keck 10-m telescope, but it is shown here as seen with a superior sharpness of the HST.
The image is available at the
STScI site
Image credit: S. R. Kulkarni and S. G. Djorgovski / STScI / NASA / AURA, Inc.
Caltech Astronomy Homepage
Caltech Institute
Relations
Caltech Media Relations
Caltech Homepage