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This inverse square nature of light was at the root of the greatest GRB dilemma. Astronomers knew how bright (in gamma rays) the GRBs appeared on the sky, but until they knew GRB distances, it would be impossible to know if GRBs were simply cosmic firecrackers or the most titanic explosions that ever existed. The former would be the case if the GRBs turned out to be nearby, say, at the edge of the solar system. The latter would be the case if GRBs ended up occurring at the huge distances (millions of light years) usually associated with cosmology.
This Interactive gives you the opportunity to play with the inverse square nature of light from a source, and get a better understanding of how it affected astronomers’ understanding of GRBs.
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