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Gamma Ray Bursts: Powerful Objects Remain a Mystery

© Wesley Colley

Gamma Ray Bursters are so-named because they produce a phenomenal amount of very high-energy photons (gamma-rays) in a very short amount of time (seconds). The objects were first discovered by military satellites searching for nuclear tests over enemy territory. When the military realized that the bursts were coming from space, instead of from the ground, they notified astronomers, who have puzzled over them ever since. By now, we have deployed a satellite, called BATSE (Burst and Transient Source Experiment) specifically designed to monitor the bursts. A debate rages among burst experts about the location, distance and intensity of the bursts. Some claim they are relatively unspectacular nearby events, such as cometary collisions in our comet cloud. Others believe they are asteroids being eaten by neutron stars or black holes in the halo of our galaxy, but some insist they are neutron star/black hole collisions at cosmological distances. At such a distance the energy requirements are pheonomenal. One burst radiates with one quintillion times the power of the sun. These puzzling and powerful objects vary tremendously in almost all their properties: spectrum, duration, intensity, repeatability and temporal profile. Since their discovery years ago, very little progress has been made as to the nature of the gamma ray bursters, even though hundreds of different theories have been proposed. Understanding these objects, however, could provide critical keys to understanding the nature of dark matter in the Universe, or phase transitions in the Early Universe, or our own comet cloud, but right now are mysterious enough on their own.