Gamma-ray bursters as a research area focuses on the astrophysical study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), extremely energetic transient events observed in gamma-ray wavelengths. This field investigates the progenitors (such as massive stellar collapse and compact object mergers), relativistic jet formation, radiation mechanisms (synchrotron, inverse Compton, photospheric emission), and afterglow evolution across the electromagnetic spectrum. Research integrates high-energy astrophysics, relativistic hydrodynamics, nuclear physics, and cosmology, using space-based gamma-ray observatories, rapid follow-up at other wavelengths, and numerical simulations to constrain GRB energetics, beaming, host environments, and their role as probes of star formation, the interstellar/intergalactic medium, and the high-redshift universe.
Astronomers have observed the longest-lasting central engine activity ever recorded from a gamma-ray burst. The burst occurred at a redshift of 0.8577, and the activity lasted about 27 days in the burst's own rest frame—around ...
An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Department of Physics and the Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (HKIAA) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has discovered a previously ...
Astronomy
Oct 4, 2026
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For decades, astronomers have identified collisions between two neutron stars through bursts of gamma rays that can disappear in less than two seconds. But some of these violent encounters may also reveal themselves through ...
Astronomy
Sep 30, 2026
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How did a photon survive a journey of more than 2 billion light-years when, according to known physics, it should have been absorbed long before reaching Earth? This is the question at the heart of a new study by Giorgio ...
General Physics
Sep 8, 2026
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Astronomers may have finally solved the mystery behind a nearly two-decade-old cosmic explosion that seemed to break the rules of physics. The energy output of a powerful gamma-ray burst, GRB 061201, discovered in 2006, did ...
Astronomers have made a series of landmark observations of one of the universe's most violent events. Using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) radio telescope, which is operated by the U.S. National ...
Astronomy
Jul 14, 2026
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When neutron stars merge, they create a powerful explosion called a kilonova that flings out neutron-rich material, some of which decays into heavy elements through a process called the r-process. Recent observations of kilonovae ...
The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescopes have spotted the aftermath of three bright explosions echoing through the outer spiral arms of our galaxy, the Milky Way. By measuring the distance ...
Astronomy
Jul 1, 2026
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235
On Jan. 26, 2026, the Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Maunakea crossed an important threshold for time-domain astronomy. For the first time, scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) demonstrated ...
Astronomy
Jun 30, 2026
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Astronomers have reported the discovery of an unusual X-ray transient detected by the Einstein Probe that does not fit any known class of cosmic explosions. The paper presenting its multiwavelength analysis was published ...
