GRB 990123

Short description: Gamma-ray burst

GRB 990123Right ascension|  15h 25m 29.0s[1]

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Declination| +44° 45′ 30″[1]
Peak apparent magnitude| 20.6R[1]

[edit on Wikidata]

GRB 990123 is a gamma-ray burst which was detected on January 23, 1999. It was the first GRB for which a simultaneous optical flash was detected. Astronomers first managed to obtain a visible-light image of a GRB as it occurred on January 23, 1999, using the ROTSE-I telescope in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The ROTSE-I was operated by a team under Dr. Carl W. Akerlof of the University of Michigan and included members from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The robotic telescope was fully automated, responding to signals from NASA's BATSE instrument aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory within seconds, without human intervention. In the dark hours of the morning of January 23, 1999, the Compton satellite recorded a gamma-ray burst that lasted for about a minute and a half. There was a peak of gamma and X-ray emission 25 seconds after the event was first detected, followed by a somewhat smaller peak 40 seconds after the beginning of the event. The emission then fizzled out in a series of small peaks over the next 50 seconds, and eight minutes after the event had faded to a hundredth of its maximum brightness. The burst was so strong that it ranked in the top 2% of all bursts detected.

Compton reported the burst to its ground control facility at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland the moment it began, and Goddard immediately sent the data out over the "gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network (GCN)". While Compton, as mentioned, could not provide precise locations of bursts, the location was good enough for the wide-field ROTSE-I. The camera array automatically focused on the region of the sky and obtained an image of the burst 22 seconds after it was detected by Compton, with subsequent images obtained every 25 seconds after that.

ROTSE-I could image cosmic objects as faint as magnitude 16, and GRB hunters had expected the visible component of a GRB to be very faint. Instead, the visible component reached magnitude 9. It was so bright that it could have been seen by an amateur astronomer with good binoculars. The object that produced it increased in brightness by a factor of 4,000 in less than a minute.

Because ROTSE-I operated automatically (while its creators slept) the news of ROTSE-I's accomplishment didn't make it out on the networks until later in the day, and in the meantime other observatories were focusing on the event, by then designated "GRB 990123".

The BeppoSAX satellite had also seen the burst, and pinned down its location to within a few arcminutes. This data was sent out, and four hours after the burst the area was imaged with the 1.52 meter (60 inch) Schmidt camera at Palomar Mountain in California. The image revealed a magnitude 18 optical transient that wasn't on archive images of the same area.

The next night, the fading object, by now down to magnitude 20, was imaged by the Keck telescope, and the 2.6 meter Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands. The observations revealed absorption lines with a redshift of 1.6, implying a distance of 9 billion light-years.

The Hubble Space Telescope performed observations on the location of GRB 990123, sixteen days after the event. It had faded by more than a factor of three million in that time. The Hubble was able to pick up the traces of a faint galaxy, whose blue color suggested it was forming new stars at a rapid rate.

## See also

* GRB 050509B

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for GRB 990123. http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/.

## Further reading

* "Decay of the GRB 990123 optical afterglow: implications for the fireball model". Science 283 (5410): 2069–73. 1999. doi:10.1126/science.283.5410.2069. PMID 10092226. Bibcode: 1999Sci...283.2069C.
* "Polarimetric constraints on the optical afterglow emission from GRB 990123". Science 283 (5410): 2073–5. 1999. doi:10.1126/science.283.5410.2073. PMID 10092227. Bibcode: 1999Sci...283.2073H.
* "Spectroscopic limits on the distance and energy release of GRB 990123". Science 283 (5410): 2075–7. 1999. doi:10.1126/science.283.5410.2075. PMID 10092228. Bibcode: 1999Sci...283.2075A.

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Boötes constellation

Stars (list)|

| Bayer|

* α (Arcturus)
* β (Nekkar)
* γ (Seginus)
* δ (Princeps)
* ε (Izar)
* ζ
* η (Muphrid)
* θ (Asellus Primus)
* ι (Asellus Secundus)
* κ (Asellus Tertius)
* λ (Xuange)
* μ (Alkalurops)
* ν1
* ν2
* ξ
* ο
* π
* ρ
* σ
* τ
* υ
* φ
* χ
* ψ
* ω

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Flamsteed|

* 1
* 2
* 3
* 6 (e)
* 7
* 9
* 10
* 11
* 12 (d)
* 13
* 14
* 15
* 18
* 20
* 22 (f)
* 24 (g)
* 26
* 31
* 32
* 33
* 34
* 38 (h, Merga)
* 39
* 40
* 44 (i)
* 45 (c)
* 46 (b)
* 47 (k)
* 50
* 101 Vir

Variable|

* R
* S
* T
* V
* RS
* RV
* RX
* SS
* ST
* SW
* TU
* TY
* TZ
* UU
* UY
* UZ
* VW
* XY
* YZ
* ZZ
* AC
* AD
* AR
* BL
* BP
* BX
* BY
* CH
* CI
* CK
* CN
* CP
* CR
* DE
* EF
* EK
* GU
* HN
* HP

HR|

* 5123
* 5129
* 5137
* 5138
* 5156
* 5164
* 5220
* 5243
* 5254
* 5262
* 5270
* 5273
* 5274
* 5310
* 5335
* 5333
* 5346
* 5347
* 5360
* 5361 (A)
* 5363
* 5372
* 5373
* 5374
* 5385
* 5387
* 5388
* 5394
* 5402
* 5416
* 5422
* 5423
* 5433
* 5445
* 5448
* 5454
* 5462
* 5464
* 5467
* 5472
* 5473
* 5483
* 5493
* 5507
* 5510
* 5524
* 5529
* 5532
* 5537
* 5541
* 5550
* 5567
* 5569
* 5574
* 5575
* 5581
* 5592
* 5609
* 5630
* 5633
* 5635
* 5639
* 5640
* 5648
* 5673
* 5674
* 5677
* 5715
* 5716
* 5726
* 5741
* 5752
* 5830
* 5835

HD|

* 119784
* 122443
* 124678
* 125076
* 126307
* 129357
* 131496 (Arcalís)
* 132406
* 132563
* 135944
* 136418

Gliese|

* GJ 526
* Gliese 569

Other|

* CFBDSIR 1458+10
* Astronomy:G 166-45
* GD 165
* HAT-P-4
* LHS 2924
* Astronomy:LkCa 19
* 2MASS 1503+2525
* Astronomy:PSR J1518+4904
* SDSS J1416+1348
* Astronomy:Sigma 1785
* TVLM 513-46546
* WASP-14
* ZTF J153932.16+502738.8

Star clusters|

| Globular|

* NGC 5466

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Galaxies|

| NGC|

* 5008
* 5239
* 5248
* 5249
* 5251
* 5293
* 5332
* 5405
* 5409
* 5411
* 5414
* 5416
* 5417
* 5418
* 5423
* 5424
* 5431
* 5434
* 5434B
* 5436
* 5437
* 5446
* 5454
* 5456
* 5459
* 5463
* 5463B
* 5469
* 5481
* 5482
* 5487
* 5490
* 5490B
* 5490C
* 5492
* 5497
* 5498
* 5499
* 5500
* 5504
* 5504C
* 5505
* 5508
* 5509
* 5511
* 5511A
* 5512
* 5513
* 5514
* 5514A
* 5515
* 5517
* 5518
* 5520
* 5522
* 5523
* 5525
* 5527
* 5528
* 5529
* 5531
* 5532B
* 5533
* 5535
* 5536
* 5538
* 5539
* 5541
* 5542
* 5543
* 5544
* 5545
* 5546
* 5548
* 5550
* 5553
* 5557
* 5559
* 5562
* 5567
* 5568
* 5570
* 5572
* 5579
* 5581
* 5582
* 5583
* 5587
* 5589
* 5590
* 5591
* 5594
* 5596
* 5598
* 5600
* 5601
* 5602
* 5603
* 5603B
* 5608
* 5609
* 5610
* 5611
* 5613
* 5614
* 5615
* 5616
* 5622
* 5623
* 5624
* 5625
* 5627
* 5628
* 5629
* 5630
* 5633
* 5635
* 5637
* 5639
* 5639B
* 5641
* 5642
* 5644
* 5646
* 5647
* 5649
* 5653
* 5654
* 5655
* 5656
* 5657
* 5659
* 5660
* 5665
* 5665A
* 5666
* 5669
* 5672
* 5673
* 5675
* 5676
* 5677
* 5681
* 5682
* 5683
* 5684
* 5685
* 5686
* 5687
* 5689
* 5693
* 5695
* 5696
* 5697
* 5698
* 5699
* 5700
* 5702
* 5707
* 5708
* 5709
* 5710
* 5711
* 5714
* 5717
* 5720
* 5721
* 5722
* 5723
* 5724
* 5727
* 5730
* 5731
* 5732
* 5735
* 5736
* 5737
* 5739
* 5747
* 5748
* 5751
* 5752
* 5753
* 5754
* 5755
* 5758
* 5759
* 5760
* 5762
* 5763
* 5767
* 5769
* 5771
* 5772
* 5773
* 5778
* 5780
* 5782
* 5784
* 5785
* 5787
* 5788
* 5789
* 5790
* 5794
* 5795
* 5797
* 5798
* 5804
* 5805
* 5818
* 5820
* 5821
* 5827
* 5828
* 5828A
* 5829
* 5830
* 5835
* 5837
* 5842
* 5851
* 5852
* 5853
* 5857
* 5859
* 5860
* 5874
* 5875
* 5875A
* 5876
* 5886
* 5888
* 5889
* 5893
* 5895
* 5896
* 5899
* 5900
* 5902
* 5914
* 5914B
* 5918
* 5923
* 5929
* 5930
* 5932
* 5933
* 5934
* 5935
* 5943
* 5945
* 5947
* 5950
* 5966
* 5992
* 5993

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Other|

* Arp 302
* Boötes I
* Boötes II
* Boötes III
* 3C 295
* 3C 296
* 3C 299
* 3C 303
* 3C 310
* 3C 315
* 4C 12.50
* 4C 26.42
* 4C 37.43
* CLASS B1359+154
* Cloverleaf quasar
* DDO 187
* DDO 190
* 1E 1415.6+2557
* H1426+428
* IRAS 13349+2438
* IRAS 15250+3609
* Markarian 463
* Markarian 477
* Markarian 478
* Markarian 841
* MS 1512-cB58
* OQ 172
* OQ 208
* OQ 530
* PG 1402+261
* PG 1404+226
* PG 1407+265
* PG 1411+442
* PG 1425+267
* PG 1543+489
* PKS 1413+135
* PKS 1424+240
* PKS 1502+106
* QSO B1400+162
* QSO B1422+202
* QSO B1422+231
* QSO B1504+377
* II Zw 71
* II Zw 73

Galaxy
clusters|

* Abell 1775
* Abell 1795
* Abell 1911
* Abell 1914
* Abell 1983
* Abell 2034
* E 1455+2232
* MS 1512.4+3647

Other|

* Boötes void
* GRB 990123
* GRB 010222
* GRB 050802
* GRB 060814
* GRB 080319B
* SCP 06F6

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB 990123. Read more

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