Download Observationer af gamma

Gamma-ray burst optical
follow-ups with robotic telescopes
Michael I. Andersen
Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
Introduction
GRB intro, BATSE, a Gamma-ray view
 The Beppo-SAX revolution
 GRB science with robotic telescopes

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
First robotic GRB observation
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
BATSE light curves
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
Hardness vs. duration
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
GRB durations
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
The BATSE sky
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
Beppo-SAX
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
GRB970228 in X-ray
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
The first optical afterglow
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
GRB990123 with ROTSE
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
Redshift = 1.60
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
Brightest object ever observed
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
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!)
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
GRB990705 host galaxy
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
GRB000926: spectrum (z=2.0338)
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
GRBs on the galactic plane
3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
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 circumburst medium
 Caused by the core-collaps of a massive star
(i.e. a star formation tracer)
 Extremely broad optical luminosity function

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
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...........

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
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

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
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

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
The SWIFT mission
Provides about 100 localisations/year
 Accurate to about 4 arcmin
 Delay less than one minute
 Launch fall 2004

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
Robotic telescopes in the
SWIFT 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

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
SWIFT GRB load on RT’s
Two in three goes off during telescopeclosed 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

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen
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

3rd Potsdam Thinkshop
Robotic Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst optical follow-ups with robotic telescopes
M.I. Andersen