Ballerina – pirouettes in search of gamma bursts

¹ Danish Space Research Institute, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
² Astronomical Observatory, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

Send offprint request to: N. Lund

Received: 29 December 1998
Accepted: 4 May 1999

Abstract

The cosmological origin of gamma ray bursts has now been established with reasonable certainty. Many more bursts will need to be studied to establish the typical distance scale, and to map out the large diversity in properties which have been indicated by the first handful of events. We are proposing Ballerina, a small satellite to provide accurate positions and new data on the gamma-ray bursts. We anticipate a detection rate an order of magnitude larger than obtained from Beppo–SAX.