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The New Gamma‐Ray Astronomy

FEB 01, 1998
Nucleosynthesis sites, Galactic black holes, gamma‐ray bursters, blazars—all yield up secrets and surprises when observed with the latest gamma‐ray detectors.

DOI: 10.1063/1.882139

Neil Gehrels
Jacques Paul

Our understanding of the gamma‐ray sky is being revolutionized. Seven years ago, gamma‐ray astronomers knew of only a scattering of very bright sources. Now, thanks to two international observatories, the gamma‐ray sky appears to be teeming with variety—unstable sources that change violently on short time scales, steady sources that glow radioactively and others whose nature we barely understand.

References

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  4. 4. S. N. Zhang, W. Cui, W. Chen, Astrophys. J. 482, L155 (1997).https://doi.org/ASJOAB

  5. 5. For results on gamma‐ray bursters from BATSE, see C. Kouveliotou, M. F. Briggs, G. F. Fishman, eds., in Gamma‐Ray Bursts: Third Huntsville Symp., AIP Conf. Proc. 384, AIP Press, Woodbury, N.Y. (1996),
    and in two “Search and Discovery” articles in PHYSICS TODAY: February 1992, p. 24,
    and April 1994, p. 17.

  6. 6. F. Hoyle, W. A. Fowler, in Quasi‐Stellar Sources and Gravitational Collapse, I. Robinson, A. Schild, E. L. Schucking, eds., U. Chicago P., Chicago (1965), p. 17.

  7. 7. E. E. Salpeter, Astrophys. J. 140, 796 (1964).https://doi.org/ASJOAB

  8. 8. D. Lynden‐Bell, Nature 223, 610 (1969).https://doi.org/NATUAS

  9. 9. M. J. Rees, Nature 229, 312 (1971).

  10. 10. C. Winkler, Astron. Astrophys. Supp. 120, 637 (1996).

More about the Authors

Neil Gehrels. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

Jacques Paul. Saclay Nuclear Research Center, Gifsur‐Yvette, France.

This Content Appeared In
pt-cover_1998_02.jpeg

Volume 51, Number 2

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