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Nature 444, 1010-1011 (21 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/4441010a; Published online 21 December 2006

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Astrophysics: A burst of new ideas

Bing Zhang1

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Gigantic cosmological gamma-ray bursts have fallen into a dichotomy of long and short bursts, each with a very different origin. The discovery of an oddball burst calls for a rethink of that classification.

The events known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most violent and luminous explosions observed in the Universe. In the early 1990s, it became clear that they come in two distinct flavours: longer-duration bursts, typically longer than 2 seconds, with a spectrum of emitted radiation that peaks at lower ('softer') energy; and shorter-duration bursts with a more energetic, 'harder' spectrum1.

  1. Bing Zhang is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-4002, USA.
    Email: bzhang@physics.unlv.edu

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