A GRB 000301C Symphony
			
		
		
		
			Last March, telescopic instruments in Earth and space tracked 
a tremendous explosion that occurred across the universe.  
A nearly unprecedented symphony of international observations began 
abruptly on 2000 March 1 when Earth-orbiting 
RXTE, 
Sun-orbiting 
Ulysses, 
and asteroid-orbiting 
NEAR 
all 
detected 
a 10-second 
burst of high-frequency
gamma radiation.  
Within 48 hours astronomers using the 2.5-meter 
Nordic Optical Telescope 
chimed in with the observation of a middle-frequency 
optical counterpart 
that was soon confirmed with the 3.5-meter 
Calar Alto Telescope in Spain.  
By the next day the explosion was picked up in low-frequency
radio waves by the by the European 
IRAM 30-meter dish in Spain, 
and then by the 
VLA telescopes in the US.   
The Japanese 8-meter 
Subaru Telescope interrupted a 
maiden engineering test to trumpet in 
infrared observations.  
Major telescopes across the globe soon began 
playing along as 
GRB 000301C came into view, detailing 
unusual behavior.  
The 
Hubble Space Telescope 
captured the 
above image and was the first to 
obtain an accurate distance to the explosion, 
placing it near redshift 2, most of the way across the visible
universe.  
The Keck II Telescope in Hawaii quickly 
confirmed and refined the redshift.  
Even today, no one is sure what 
type of explosion 
this was.  
Unusual features of the light curve 
are still being studied, and no 
host galaxy 
appears near the position of this explosion.