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Solved and unsolved mysteries in cosmic gamma‐ray bursts
Author(s) -
Hurley K.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/1521-3994(199908)320:4/5<269::aid-asna269>3.0.co;2-8
Subject(s) - physics , gamma ray burst , neutron star , astrophysics , hypernova , astronomy , cosmic cancer database , cosmic ray , stars
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.