An All - Sky High - Energy Mystery
Since their discovery in the 1960s, the nature and origin of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have remained one of astrophysics most enduring puzzles. Each GRB splays brief bursts of light of the very shortest wavelengths into the sky. Short wavelength light has the highest energy, indicating an origin for GRBs that must be bound to incredibly violent cosmic events. What kind of process could produce such intense but short - lived violence? GRBs emanate from all over the sky, favoring neither the plane of the solar system, nor the Milky Way Galaxy. What kind of process would distribute itself everywhere across the sky? Until 10 years ago astronomers knew little about the source of these strange gamma ray flashes.
In the 1990s, a number of advanced gamma ray satellites such as the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory were launched, which could not only detect GRBs when they occurred, but could also help pinpoint their location on the sky, allowing other telescopes to find their distances. Using these telescopes, astronomers realized that GRBs originated at the incredible distances of millions or billions of light years away. GRBs were associated with events occurring in distant galaxies. This was why they appeared to come from all directions in the sky. But while one mystery had been solved, another emerged.
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