Neutron stars may be too weak to power some gamma-ray bursts

Science Centric ^ | November 3, 2010 | Unknown

[decimon]

A gamma-ray burst is an immensely powerful blast of high-energy light thought to be generated by a collapsing star in a distant galaxy, but what this collapse leaves behind has been a matter of debate.

A new analysis of four extremely bright bursts observed by NASA's Fermi satellite suggests that the remnant from a long-duration gamma-ray burst is most likely a black hole - not a rapidly spinning, highly magnetised neutron star, or magnetar since such a burst emits more energy than is theoretically possible from a magnetar.

'Some of the events we have been finding seem to be pushing right up against this total limit for a neutron star progenitor system,' said S. Bradley Cenko, a post-doctoral fellow from the University of California, Berkeley.

[dragnet2]

I would much rather do web searches on the formation of neutron stars

Feel free to do so.

[SunkenCiv]

So, I’m being violated right now? Cool.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!