Gamma-ray bursts (Vela satellites)
Estallidos de rayos gamma (satélites Vela)
- Date
- 2 de julio de 1967 (publicado en 1973) · confidence high
- Place
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, United States
- Credited to
- Ray Klebesadel, Ian Strong and Roy Olson (Los Alamos)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The Vela military satellites, designed to monitor nuclear tests, detected brief flashes of gamma rays of cosmic origin. The finding, published in 1973, opened a field now attributed to stellar explosions and neutron-star mergers.
Detected on 2 July 1967 by Vela 4a and 4b; the team took six years to rule out a terrestrial or solar origin and publish.
What it led to
- the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (1991) and the Swift and Fermi missions
- confirmation of their extragalactic origin (BeppoSAX, 1997)
- detection of neutron-star mergers (GW170817)