Eric Burns

Oct 25, 2023 | nature.com | Andrew J. Levan |Benjamin P. Gompertz |Eric Burns |Luca Izzo |Gavin Lamb |Daniele B. Malesani | +43 more

AbstractThe mergers of binary compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes are of central interest to several areas of astrophysics, including as the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)1, sources of high-frequency gravitational waves (GW)2 and likely production sites for heavy element nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture (the r-process)3. Here we present observations of the exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst GRB 230307A.

Mar 28, 2023 | lsu.edu | Eric Burns

BATON ROUGE – On Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022, a pulse of intense radiation swept through the solar system so exceptional that astronomers quickly dubbed it the BOAT – the brightest of all time. The source was a gamma-ray burst, or GRB, the most powerful class of explosions in the universe. The burst triggered detectors on numerous spacecraft, and observatories around the globe followed up.