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Published July 20, 1993 | Published
Journal Article Open

Gamma-Ray Continuum and Line Observations of Supernova 1987A

Abstract

The Caltech gamma-ray imaging telescope observed the hard X-ray and gamma-ray emission from SN 1987A as it evolved between 1987 May and 1989 April, in a series of four balloon flights from Alice Springs, NT, Australia. Observations of the Crab Nebula and Pulsar provided in-flight data on pointing accuracy and instrument function for each flight. Results presented here include our measurements on 1987 November 18 (D268) and 1988 April 12 (D414) of both line emission at 847 and 1238 keV from the decay of ^(56)Co, and Compton scattered continuum above 50 keV. Upper limits for both line and continuum emission were obtained on 1987 May 20 (D86) and 1989 April 4 (D771). For the D268 and D414 continuum measurements our results are best-fit by a different~al p_ower law of the form dN/dE = kE^(-y)(c,^(-2)s^(-1)keV^(-1)for the energy range 50-800 keV. Our corresponding line measurements were fit with Gaussian profiles, containing additional terms for the underlying continuum. We compare our flux measurements and upper limits to those from other experiments and to predictions of theoretical models.

Additional Information

© 1993 The American Astronomical Society. Received 1992 December 8; accepted 1993 January 27. We acknowledge the important contributions to the development of the GRIP instrument made by W. Althouse, D. Burke, A. Cummings, M. Finger, C. Starr, J. Weger, and the personnel of the Central Engineering Services at the California Institute of Technology. We thank the personnel of the National Scientific Balloon Facility and the NASA Wallops Flight Facility for their excellent balloon launch support. This work was supported in part by NASA grants NGR 05-002-160 and NAGW-1919.

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