Solved and unsolved mysteries in cosmic gamma-ray bursts

✍ Scribed by K. Hurley

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 98 KB
• Volume: 320
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0004-6337
• DOI: 10.1002/1521-3994(199908)320:4/5<269::aid-asna269>3.0.co;2-8

✦ Synopsis

Contrary to popular belief, the great mysteries of cosmic gamma-ray bursts have not been solved. The distance scale for one class of bursts has indeed been established -they are cosmological -and the energetics indicate that bursts may be the most powerful explosions in the Universe. However, there is a class of bursts which appear to have a Euclidean distribution, and no counterparts have been found for them. Although virtually all bursts display X-ray afterglows, only one half have associated optical afterglows, and fewer still have radio afterglows. Finally, there is considerable debate over just what the energy source is -merging neutron stars, or hypernovae. I review briefly the observations of bursts and their counterparts.