Gamma Ray Burst 970228

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the fading fireball from one of the universe's most mysterious phenomena, a gamma-ray burst.

Though the visible component has faded to 1/500th its brightness (27.7 magnitude) from the time it was first discovered by ground- based telescopes last March (the actual gamma-ray burst took place on February 28), Hubble continues to clearly see the fireball and discriminated a surrounding nebulosity (at 25th magnitude) which is considered a host galaxy.