The position does not explain the whole story, he continued. Its gradual dimming shows that it is very big and bright. Many of the papers at Tuesday's session dealt with different observations of bursts. The graph uses logarithms that compress large numbers so they fit easily on a sheet of paper. What I find so remarkable about these readings is that this is power law behavior.
Power law describes how something expands and loses energy.
The March and September brightnesses of GRB 970228 fit exactly on the line. Most other telescope observations do, too, although three separate observations are far enough off that additional study may be required. The crucial point, though, is that the object is taking so long to fade. The explosion of a star is like an explosion on Earth. The shock plows through material around it, compressing and pushing it ahead.