Interpreting the X-ray Flash XRF 060218 and its associated supernova

Forty years after their discovery, and in spite of a very large body of observations, the operation of the 'engine' responsible for long-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and X-ray flashes --as well as the mechanisms generating their radiation-- are still the subject of debate and study. In this respect a recent event, XRF 060218, associated with SN 2006aj, is particularly significant. It has been argued that, for the first time, the break-out of the shock involved in the supernova explosion has been observed, thanks to the detection of a thermal component in the event's radiation; that this XRF was not a GRB seen 'off-axis', but a member of a new class of energetically feeble GRBs; and that its 'continued engine activity' may have been driven by a remnant highly-magnetized neutron star, a magnetar. I argue, on grounds based on observations and on limpid verified hypothesis, that there is a common, simpler alternative to these views, with no thermal component, no new feeble GRBs, and no steady engine activity.