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S. Kulkarni (Caltech)
The principal results prior to the discovery of afterglow emission were the demonstration of isotropy, the dearth of faint bursts, a clear separation of long and short bursts and a Galactic origin for soft gamma-ray repeaters. We now know that long duration bursts are explosive events arising in cosmologically located star-forming galaxies. Direct and indirect evidence link GRBs to supernovae but the inferred energy release appears to be an order magnitude larger. We have now become are of an entirely new class of cosmological explosions -- X-ray flashes. Finally, the association of a GRB with a nearby supernova is suggestive that cosmological GRBs are merely the tip of the explosion iceberg.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.