AAS 203rd Meeting, January 2004
Session 28 HAD II
Division Oral, Monday, January 5, 2004, 10:00-11:30am, Regency V

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[28.02] The Maximum Duration of Astronomical Incomprehension

V. L. Trimble (University of Maryland, College Park)

To those of us who lived through the period, the 24 years between the discovery of gamma ray bursts (1973) and their identification with very powerful events at cosmological distances (1997) seemed very long. The case will, however, be made that Mira variables, coronal lines, and others remained puzzling much longer, from the time when they were recognized as requiring an explanation until a successful explanation was found. It is possible that some phenomena now with us (the nature of dark matter, cosmic ray acceleration, etc.) will also exceed the GRB mark and perhaps even the coronal line century.


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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.