Discovery of the X-Ray Afterglow of the Gamma-Ray Burst of February 28 1997
Costa, E. ; Frontera, F. ; Heise, J. ; ...Coletta, A. ; ...Giommi, P. ; et al.
Jun - 1997

journal : Nature

Issue : 19 June
type: Article Journal

Abstract
Here we report the discovery in the X-ray band of the first afterglow of a gamma-ray burst. It was detected and quickly positioned by the Beppo-SAX satellite on 1997 February 28 (GRB970228). The X-ray afterglow source was detected with the X-ray telescopes aboard the same satellite about eight hours after the burst and faded away in a few days with a power law decay function. The energetic content of the X-ray afterglow results to be a significant fraction of gamma-ray burst energetics. The Beppo-SAX detection and fast imaging of GRB970228 started a multiwavelength campaign that lead to the identification of a fading optical source in a position consistent with the X-ray source.

keywords :