May 17, 2006
The Earth has carried you around the Sun again, steady as ever, while the stars kept their patient watch.
The Host Galaxies of Long-Duration GRBs
Birthday · May 17, 2006
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APOD published May 17, 2006. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
What causes the powerful explosions known as gamma-ray bursts? Astrophysicists still aren't sure, but the longest duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) seem to involve very massive stars. A new clue indicating this was uncovered recently by a series of images taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. These images, shown above, indicate that long duration GRBs typically appear to come from galaxies and regions of galaxies with bright regions rich with star formation and bright, massive stars. Long GRBs are therefore different than many types of supernovas, which occur more uniformly distributed in their host galaxies. Since such active star forming regions are relatively rare in our Milky Way Galaxy, the chances of a nearby GRB affecting life on Earth are relatively slight.