Observations of the Naked-Eye GRB 080319B: Implications of Nature's Brightest Explosion

Understand

The first gamma-ray burst (GRB) confirmed to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, GRB 080319B at redshift z = 0.937, allowed for exquisite follow-up observations across the electromagnetic spectrum.

• We present our detailed optical and infrared observations of the afterglow, consisting of over 5000 images starting 51 s after the GRB trigger, in concert with our own analysis of the Swift data.
• The event is extreme not only in observed properties but intrinsically: it was the most luminous event ever recorded at optical and infrared wavelengths and had an exceedingly high isotropic-equivalent energy release in gamma-rays.
• At early times, the afterglow evolution is broadly consistent with being reverse-shock dominated, but then is subsumed by a forward shock at around 1000 s.