Some of the universe's most energetic and mysterious light shows, long gamma-ray bursts, could be generated after dense dead stars collide to create infant black holes surrounded by a natal disk of ...

While astrophysicists previously believed that only supernovae could generate long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), a 2021 observation uncovered evidence that compact-object mergers also can generate the ...

A supercomputer simulation of a mere 10 milliseconds in the collapse of a massive star into a neutron star proves that these catastrophic events, often called hypernovae, can generate the enormous ...

Astronomers are trying to understand what caused a series of gamma ray bursts, or GRBs — the most powerful explosions in the universe. These energetic bursts are typically unleashed by the incendiary ...

Cutting-edge computer simulations combined with theoretical calculations are helping astronomers better understand the origin of some of the universe's most energetic and mysterious light shows -- ...

"The gamma-ray burst traveled through intergalactic space at the speed of light for eleven billion years, during which time the Sun and the planets were born." — Timothy Ferris, in the film version of ...

Magnetars are bizarre objects — massive, spinning neutron stars with magnetic fields among the most powerful known, capable of shooting off brief bursts of radio waves so bright they’re visible across ...

A flash of high-energy light from deep space has forced astronomers to rethink what they thought they knew about the most violent explosions in the universe. The event, a strange gamma-ray burst that ...

A space explosion detected this summer burned for days on end, making it the longest and most unusual gamma-ray burst ever seen. Gamma-ray bursts are the universe’s most powerful explosions. They ...

When a distant galaxy briefly outshines everything around it in high-energy light, astronomers usually know which playbook to reach for. Gamma-ray bursts tend to fall into familiar categories, either ...

When faraway stars explode, they send out flashes of energy called gamma-ray bursts that are bright enough that telescopes back on Earth can detect them. Studying these pulses, which can also come ...

Last year, Northwestern University researchers reported new observational evidence that long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can result from the merger of a neutron star with another compact object (either ...