The early afterglow multi-wavelength radiation could provide
interesting and invaluable information on the extreme relativistic
conditions that occur at this stage. The emission from the forward
shock, which continues later as the observed afterglow signals is in
the -rays or X-rays. The reverse shock emission
could have a strong, short living,
optical component which we expect to be brighter than 15th
magnitude. Some of the current basic ideas concerning the fireball
models should be revised if such signals will not be seen by new
detectors that should become operational in the near future.
This research was supported by the US-Israel BSF 95-328 and by a grant from the Israeli Space Agency. R.S. thanks the Sherman Fairchild Foundation for support.
Copyright The European Southern Observatory (ESO)