What are gamma-ray bursts? /
Joshua S. Bloom.
- Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, �2011.
- 1 online resource (xii, 256 pages) : illustrations, map
- Princeton frontiers in physics .
- Princeton frontiers in physics. .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Into the belly of the beast -- Afterglows -- The events in context -- The progenitors of gamma-ray bursts -- Gamma-ray bursts as probes of the universe.
Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest--and, until recently, among the least understood--cosmic events in the universe. Discovered by chance during the cold war, these evanescent high-energy explosions confounded astronomers for decades. But a rapid series of startling breakthroughs beginning in 1997 revealed that the majority of gamma-ray bursts are caused by the explosions of young and massive stars in the vast star-forming cauldrons of distant galaxies. New findings also point to very different origins for some events, serving to complicate but enrich our understanding of the exotic and violent.