Gamma Ray Bursts

The most powerful explosions in the Universe, emitting huge amounts of high-energy radiation. Likely causes for these massive events include hypernovae, the explosions of giant stars, and the collision of neutron stars, either with each other or with a black hole. Neutron star activity within globular clusters is another potential source.

GRBs occur in two forms: bursts lasting a minute or more, which seem to be caused by hypernovas, and short bursts, sometimes of only a millisecond, which probably originate from neutron-star merges.