.: Where Are They Located?

           Where do the most energetic events in the universe come from?  Are they created in our own Milky Way galaxy or created billions of light-years away at the opposite end of the universe?  When first discovered in the 1970’s, astronomers assumed GRB were just a variation of x-ray bursts that can occur on a neutron star in a close binary system.  Then in 1991, with the launch of NASA’s Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, scientists discovered that the bursts were randomly distributed throughout the sky.  These findings proved that gamma ray busts were not the same as x-ray binaries.  

           Gamma ray bursts are thought to result from the death of very hot and large stars.  Based on this fact, it is believed that most bursts occur in areas of young and newly formed stars.  The problem with finding and studying GRB is that they only last a few seconds on average and are very far away.  Many times the stars that create them aren’t visible before the explosion.  These extraordinary bursts happen so far away that we can only estimate the distance without great accuracy.  As technology increases, we will be able to examine GRB further and hopefully pinpoint the exact location of one of the most intriguing events in the universe.

(The view thousands of light-years away from earth)