Dodging pitfalls in the hunt for the cause of gamma-ray bursts
Space Science News home Dodging pitfalls in the hunt for the
cause of gamma-ray Oct 21, 1999: Three decades after the
discovery of gamma-ray bursts, their causes remain elusive and
still offer potential pitfalls for investigators. "We really
need to be careful ... and make sure that we're interpreting the
meager data carefully," said Dr. Gerald Fishman of NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center. Speaking at the Fifth biennial
Huntsville Gamma Ray Burst Symposium, Fishman reviewed a number
of the questions that astrophysicists still have to resolve in
what has moved from an oddity to a hot topic. Gamma-ray bursts
were discovered by accident in the late 1960s when the United
States launched satellites intended to monitor compliance with
the nuclear test ban treaty. They discovered bursts of gamma
radiation that came from outside our solar system. Initially
these were thought to be associated with our galaxy. But they
came and went so quickly that locati