This was quite a burst!

The main emission of gamma rays lasted for about 50 seconds, and had about *20* bright peaks during the first 20 seconds. After that it faded, but emission was seen for about 800 second total, making this one of the longest bursts ever seen. The Japanese satellite Suzaku also detected the burst, as did the Konus-WIND experiment.

Swift's X-Ray Telescope saw a rapidly decaying X-ray afterglow, which was also showing flaring behavior -- rapid peaks of emission. The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope also detected an afterglow, and several observatories report detecting it as well.

One team of astronomers using the Danish 1.45 meter telescope in La Silla, Chile, report seeing the afterglow in red colors, but not bluer ones. Swift's UVOT confirms this, though the UVOT did detect the burst in visible wavelengths (yellow). This may indicate a large distance for the burst. We eagerly await followup observations!

Update (May 9, 2007): Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile obtained a spectrum of the burst. Unfortunately, it was nearly featureless and therefore difficult to use to get the distance. They did see one emission line, but they could not identify it. If it is from hydrogen, the redshift would be z=0.033 (a distance of 440 million light years, which is very close for a GRB) and if it is from oxygen the redshift is z=0.82 (7 billion light years, which is more reasonable). However, neither distance is certain. However, they put a firm upper limit on the redshift of z=2.3 (10.8 billion light years) because the spectrum shows no trace of the "Lyman alpha forest", a series of absorption lines expected from very distant objects (see HERE for info on the Lyman alpha forest).

Update 2 (May 10, 2007): A pseudoredshift calculated using the spectrum of the gamma rays indicates a very rough redshift of about z=1, which is compatible with the estimate from the VLT outlined in the first Update above.

Coordinates
Right Ascension 20:51:07
Declination -78:22:05
Constellation of Octans