The left panel of the video shows photons, in red, being injected into and propagating through a Gamma Ray Burst outflow, plotted in purple/blue. The top right panel shows how the spectrum of those photons change as the photons interact with the matter in the jet. The bottom right panel shows the average temperatures of the photons, in red, and the matter surrounding the photons, in blue.

This video shows the total power of the MCRaT code. We are able to produce mock observed time resolved and time integrated spectra and polarizations which can be compared to observations. Additionally, the underlying hydrodynamically simulated jet dynamics can be mapped to the mock observed quantities of interest allowing us to get a deeper look into how the GRB jet affects the produced radiation signature.

Credit: Spectrum and NASA E/PO, Sonoma State University, Aurore Simonnet The Swift observatory is a one-of-a-kind observatory that allows quick followup of detected Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in optical and X-ray energies. On board the observatory is the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) which is a coded aperture instrument which detects GRBs and localizes them to a small area of the sky. This allows the spacecraft to change its orientation so the other two instruments, XRT and UVOT, can begin observations of the GRB.