The Year in Science: Gamma Ray Bursts

Two years ago, nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, hosted a conference on the astronomical phenomenon known as gamma-ray bursts. Plenty of observational astronomers showed up, but, says Gerald Fishman, a Marshall astrophysicist, the theorists mostly stayed away. It wasn’t for lack of interest: since their discovery in the late 1960s, these brief flashes of high-energy electromagnetic radiation have been one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Explaining them would qualify as a major coup.