Gigantic explosions buried in dust: ALMA probes environment around dark gamma-ray bursts
Wednesday, June 11, 2014 - 12:30
in Astronomy & Space
Observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have for the first time directly mapped out the molecular gas and dust in the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)—the biggest explosions in the Universe. In a complete surprise, less gas was observed than expected, and correspondingly much more dust, making some GRBs appear as "dark GRBs". This work will appear in the journal Nature on 12 June 2014 and is the first ALMA science result on GRBs to appear. It shows ALMA's potential to help us to better understand these objects.