3It is now accepted that long duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) are produced during the collapse of a massive star 1,2 . 11,12 . GRB 060505 was a faint burst with a duration of 4 s. GRB 060614 had a duration of 102 s and a pronounced hard to soft evolution. Both were rapidly localised by Swift's X-ray telescope (XRT). Subsequent follow-up of these bursts led to the discovery of their optical afterglows, locating them in galaxies at low redshift: GRB 060505 at z = 0.089 13 and GRB 060614 at z = 0.125 14,15 . The relative proximity of these bursts engendered an expectation that a bright SN would be discovered a few days after the bursts, as had been found just a few months before in 4 another low-redshift Swift burst, GRB 060218 (z = 0.033) 9 , and in all previous wellobserved nearby bursts 1,5-8 .We monitored the afterglows of GRB 060505 and 060614 using a range of telescopes (see supplementary material for details). These led to early detections of the afterglows. We continued the monitoring campaign and obtained stringent upper limits on any re-brightening at the position of the optical afterglows up to 12 and 5 weeks after the bursts, respectively. The light-curves obtained based on this monitoring are shown in Fig. 1. For GRB 060505 we detected the optical afterglow at a single epoch. All subsequent observations resulted in deep upper limits. For GRB 060614 we followed the decay of the optical afterglow in the R-band up to four nights after the burst. In later observations no source was detected to deep limits (see also 14,15 for independent studies of this event). As seen in Fig. 1, the upper limits are far below the level seen in previous SNe, in particular previous SNe associated with long-duration GRBs 5-9 . For both GRBs A concern in any attempt to uncover a SN associated with a GRB is the presence of a poorly quantified level of extinction along the line of sight. In these cases however,we are fortunate that the levels of Galactic extinction in both directions are very low,. In the case of GRB 060505, our spatially resolved spectroscopy of the host galaxy allows us to use the Balmer emission line ratios to limit the dust obscuration 5 at the location of the burst. The Balmer line ratio is consistent with no internal reddening. In the case of GRB 060614, the detection of the early afterglow in many bands, including the Swift UV bands UVW1 and UVW2 17 , rules out significant obscuration of the source in the host galaxy and we conclude that there is no significant dust obscuration in either case (see also 15 ).Both GRBs were located in star-forming galaxies. The host galaxy of GRB 060505 has an absolute magnitude of about M B = -19.6 and the spectrum displays the prominent emission lines typically seen in star-forming galaxies. The 2-dimensional spectrum shows that the host galaxy emission seen at the position of the afterglow is due to a compact H II region in a spiral arm of the host (see the supplementary material for details). We estimate a star-formation rate of 1 M  yr −1 and a specific rate of about 4T...

A new class of ultra-long-duration (more than 10,000 seconds) γ-ray bursts has recently been suggested. They may originate in the explosion of stars with much larger radii than those producing normal long-duration γ-ray bursts or in the tidal disruption of a star. No clear supernova has yet been associated with an ultra-long-duration γ-ray burst. Here we report that a supernova (SN 2011kl) was associated with the ultra-long-duration γ-ray burst GRB 111209A, at a redshift z of 0.677. This supernova is more than three times more luminous than type Ic supernovae associated with long-duration γ-ray bursts, and its spectrum is distinctly different. The slope of the continuum resembles those of super-luminous supernovae, but extends further down into the rest-frame ultraviolet implying a low metal content. The light curve evolves much more rapidly than those of super-luminous supernovae. This combination of high luminosity and low metal-line opacity cannot be reconciled with typical type Ic supernovae, but can be reproduced by a model where extra energy is injected by a strongly magnetized neutron star (a magnetar), which has also been proposed as the explanation for super-luminous supernovae.

Variable X-ray and γ-ray emission is characteristic of the most extreme physical processes in the Universe, and studying the sources of these energetic photons has been a major driver in astronomy for the past 50 years. Here we present multiwavelength observations of a unique γ-ray selected transient, discovered by Swift, which was accompanied by bright emission across the electromagnetic spectrum, and whose properties are unlike any previously observed source. We pinpoint the event to the center of a small, star-forming galaxy at redshift z = 0.3534. Its high-energy emission has lasted much longer than any gamma-ray burst, while its peak luminosity was ∼100 times higher than bright active galactic nuclei. The association of the outburst with the cen-1 arXiv:1104.3356v1 [astro-ph.HE]

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