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Nature 426, 397-399 (27 November 2003) | doi:10.1038/426397a

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Astronomy: Beacons in the distant cosmos

Luigi Piro1

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Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest and most distant explosions in the Universe. A convincing body of evidence now links these bursts to supernovae, but there is still more to learn about their origins.

Although previously limited to a small pool of specialists, research on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has now entered the mainstream of astrophysics, as attendance at two recent conferences* attests. Most progress in the field concerns the most numerous class of GRBs, the so-called long bursts, which last more than two seconds.

  1. Istituto Astrofisica Spaziale Fisica Cosmica, INAF, Via Fosso del Cavaliere, I-00133 Rome, Italy.
    Email: piro@rm.iasf.cnr.it