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“This is the first time an X-ray telescope has imaged a gamma-ray burst, while it was bursting,” said Dr. Neil Gehrels, Swift’s Principal Investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. “Most bursts are gone in about 10 seconds, and few last upwards of a minute. Previous X-ray images have captured the burst afterglow, not the burst itself.”

The Swift GRB Imaging satellite has already proven to be very useful early in its mission. Hopefully, this will be the first of many gamma ray bursts captured by Swift.