The shock break-out of GRB 060218/SN 2006aj
Abstract
Although the link between long Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and supernovae (SNe) has been established, hitherto there have been no observations of the beginning of a supernova explosion and its intimate link to a GRB. In particular, we do not know however how a GRB jet emerges from the star surface nor how a GRB progenitor explodes. Here we report on observations of the close GRB060218 and its connection to SN2006aj. In addition to the classical non-thermal emission, GRB060218 shows a thermal component in its X-ray spectrum, which cools and shifts into the optical/UV band as time passes. We interpret these features as arising from the break out of a shock driven by a mildly relativistic shell into the dense wind surrounding the progenitor. Our observations allow us for the first time to catch a SN in the act of exploding, to directly observe the shock break-out and to provide strong evidence that the GRB progenitor was a Wolf-Rayet star.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0603279,
title = {The shock break-out of GRB 060218/SN 2006aj},
author = {S. Campana and V. Mangano and A. J. Blustin and P. Brown and D. N. Burrows and G. Chincarini and J. R. Cummings and G. Cusumano and M. Della Valle and D. Malesani and P. Meszaros and J. A. Nousek and M. Page and T. Sakamoto and E. Waxman and B. Zhang and Z. G. Dai and N. Gehrels and S. Immler and F. E. Marshall and K. O. Mason and A. Moretti and P. T. O'Brien and J. P. Osborne and K. L. Page and P. Romano and P. W. A. Roming and G. Tagliaferri and L. R. Cominsky and P. Giommi and O. Godet and J. A. Kennea and H. Krimm and L. Angelini and S. D. Barthelmy and P. T. Boyd and D. M. Palmer and A. A. Wells and N. E. White},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0603279},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
12 pages, 3 color figures (final version). Accepted for publication in Nature