Short Gamma-ray Bursts Traced to Colliding Stars 135
Astervitude writes "Collisions of the cosmic kind could be the source of one of nature's most lethal explosions. Astronomers have traced the origin of short-duration gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, to the merger of neutron stars or other dense bodies. Space.com has a report on the scientific detective work that led to the solution of what has been described as a 35-year-old mystery. "Our observations do not prove the coalescence model, but we surely have found a lady with a smoking gun next to a dead body," said Shri Kulkarni, one of over two dozen astronomers who discovered and investigated two short-duration bursts that took place last May and July. Unlike short-duration GRBs, long-duration GRBs are believed to be produced when extremely massive stars collapse and explode as supernovas."
Re:Correction... (Score:2, Funny)
Wait... why dinosaurs dissapeared again?
I thought it was because they took up smoking...
Get rich quick (Score:3, Funny)
The merger of two dense bodies causes gamma-ray bursts?
Wow! Now I can get rich selling lead underwear the next time there's a Microsoft/AOL merger hoax [re-quest.net]
Science Meets Film Noir (Score:5, Funny)
"Our observations do not prove the coalescence model, but we surely have found a lady with a smoking gun next to a dead body," said Shri Kulkarni
Looks like the Sin City [imdb.com] DVD has been getting a lot of play time down in the lab....
Re:article is slightly misleading... (Score:3, Funny)
Dude - never talk about the space in which you would write an explanation. That's like the ultimate jinx. The last time a guy did that, it took the rest of the world 357 years to figure it out.
;)
A brief history of time (Score:2, Funny)
Then again I could be wrong, a lot of it is over my head.
But how does this fit... (Score:3, Funny)