The Arthur C. Clarke Gamma-Ray Burst

On 19 March 2007 Swift discovered four gamma-ray bursts. This is a record for Swift. There have been several times when Swift has discovered three gamma-ray bursts in one day, but this is the first time that four were found. Even more impressive is that during that time Swift actually found five gamma-ray bursts over a 24-hour period, but the fifth was technically found on 20 March 2008.

The really amazing event, though, was the second gamma-ray burst, named GRB 080319B with the "B" standing for the second burst of the day. This burst was so bright that it was briefly visible to the naked eye. The optical afterglow reached a visual magnitude of about 5.3 for a few seconds. Anyone who was in a dark site and looking at Boötes at about 6:12 UT (about 2:12 EDT) could have seen the gamma-ray burst as a faint flash that faded over a period of about 30 seconds. This was the brightest optical afterglow that has ever been seen, and one of the most energetic gamma-ray bursts ever detected. GRB 080319B is even more impressive when one considers that it was located half-way across the Universe. The light from GRB 080319B was emitted 7.5 billion years ago, over three billion years before the Sun was born.

So, why is this column titled the "Arthur C. Clarke Gamma-Ray Burst"? Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the acclaimed science fiction author who popularized the idea of communications satelites, died on 19 March 2008 at the age of 91. To quote the Wikipedia entry for Sir Arthur C. Clarke:

Clarke served in the Royal Air Force as a radar instructor and technician from 1941-1946, proposed satellite communication systems in 1945 which won him the Franklin Institute Stuart Ballantine Gold Medal in 1963 and a nomination in 1994 for a Nobel Prize, and 1999 for literature, and became the chairman of the British Interplanetary Society from 1947-1950 and again in 1953.[7] Later, he helped fight for the preservation of lowland gorillas. He won the UNESCO-Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science in 1961. Clarke was knighted in 1998. He emigrated to Sri Lanka in 1956 largely to pursue his interest in scuba diving, and lived there until his death.

Because of this there has been a call to officially name GRB 080319B the "Arthur C. Clarke Burst". This is a nice idea, and I support it, but unfortunately there is no mechanism for naming gamma-ray bursts beyond giving them a catalogue number. Gamma-ray bursts are named for the date that they occurred. GRB 080319B is the second gamma-ray burst to be detected on 2008-03-19. Informally the burst is being referred to as the "Arthur C. Clarke Burst" by some astronomers, but this is not an official name. Sir Arthur inspired a lot of astronomers, and there is a desire to honour him this way. Some astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre prepared the following tribute.