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Science 30 March 2007:
Vol. 315. no. 5820, p. 1764
DOI: 10.1126/science.315.5820.1764c
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This Week in Science

Figure 1 Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) that last several seconds or longer are thought to arise from the deaths of massive stars. Light from GRBs may be polarized if there are aligned magnetic fields around the collapsing star or in magnetized jets that it generates. Some observations had detected polarized signals from GRBs hours after the burst started. Mundell et al. (p. 1822; see the Perspective by Covino; published online March 15) have looked for polarized optical light just two and a half minutes after the burst GRB 060418 went off with the robotic Liverpool Telescope on La Palma, Canary Islands, which automatically responded to notification of the burst. At this early time, the light emitted came from the initial fireball of the explosion. No polarization was seen, to a limit of less than 8%, which rules out models with large aligned magnetic fields.

CREDIT: MUNDELL ET AL.




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