ENIGMATIC gamma-ray bursters leave behind telltale 鈥渟hells鈥� in galaxies,
scientists in Russia and the US suggest.
Gamma-ray bursters, the brightest beacons in the Universe, typically flash
somewhere in the sky about once a day. It鈥檚 not clear what generates them,
although candidates include explosions of massive stars or collisions between
neutron stars.
In this week鈥檚 Astrophysical Journal Letters (vol 510, p 163), Yuri
Efremov of Moscow State University and his colleagues say these explosions could
sweep interstellar hydrogen into huge shells several thousand light years
across.
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鈥淭here are dozens of these supershells in some galaxies and for the largest
of them, gamma-ray bursters seem the only plausible sources,鈥� says Efremov.
鈥淭heir distributions and ages could give clues to the origins of gamma-ray
产耻谤蝉迟别谤蝉.鈥�