The Biggest Bangs : The Mystery of Gamma-Ray Bursts, the Most Violent Explosions in the Universe

Katz, Jonathan I.

Oxford University Press Inc（2002/07発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 232 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780195145700
• DDC分類 523.84465

Full Description

For over a quarter of a century, gamma-ray bursts were the outstanding mystery in astronomy. No one knew where they were or how they worked. The Biggest Bangs tells how the mystery was unraveled, from the discovery of gamma-ray bursts by a Cold War satellite system monitoring the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to the localization of bursts in distant galaxies and the observation of surprisingly bright flashes of light from the bursts themselves. The Biggest Bangs is for laymen with an interest in science, physicists and astronomers interested in subjects in those fields not their specialty, students in non-technical astonomy courses, and as supplemental reading for courses in the history of science.

Contents

PREFACE ; INTRODUCTION ; Vela ; Detectors ; Where are they? ; What are they? ; Compactness ; The Large Magellanic Cloud ; False Light ; False Lines ; The Copernican Dilemma ; Soft Gamma Repeaters ; BATSE ; The Great Debate ; The Theorists' Turn ; Afterglows ; The Supernova Connection? ; The Holy Grail ; The End of the Beginning ; AFTERWORD ; APPENDIX: DID A GAMMA-RAY BURST KILL THE DINOSAURS ; GLOSSARY ; SOURCES ; INDEX