Gamma-Ray Burst Challenges Theory

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The core of a massive star in a distant galaxy collapses ending its life -- though there is little effect visible at the surface. Deep inside twin beams of matter and energy begin to blast their way outward. Within seconds the beams have eaten their ...
The core of a massive star in a distant galaxy collapses, ending its life -- though there is little effect visible at the surface. Deep inside, twin beams of matter and energy begin to blast their way outward. Within seconds, the beams have eaten their way out of the star, and observers at Earth see it as a gamma-ray burst, GRB 060729A. Credit: Phil Plait SSU NASA E/PO; Aurore Simonnet SSU NASA E/PO

In a series of landmark observations gathered over a period of four months, NASA's Swift satellite has challenged some of astronomers' fundamental ideas about gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are among the most extreme events in our universe. GRBs are the explosive deaths of very massive stars, some of which eject jets that can release in a matter of seconds the same amount of energy that the sun will radiate over its 10-billion-year lifetime.


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