A short history
of the Gamma Rays Bursts
observations
The history of the Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) has begun in the late 1960s
with the observation by the VELA military satellites of intense and
short bursts of gamma-ray radiation (typically between 0.2 and 1.5
MeV). These American satellites, which were especially designed to
observe the gamma ray signal produced by possible Soviet nuclear tests
in the Earth atmosphere, could not determine the direction of these
sources. However, in the early 1970s, a second generation of
satellites, the Advanced VELA, with pointing strategy based on the
arrival time difference between the satellites, could exclude a
terrestrial or solar origin. The very first scientific publication
reporting the observation of the 16 first GRBs has been then published
in 1973.
For a very long period, there was a heated debate
in the astronomical community on the origin and the distance of the
GRBs: were they produced in our own galaxy or in distant galaxies?,
which mechanism can release such an energy?, ...
The very first breakthrough has been performed by
the BATSE experiment on board the CGRO satellite, which has observed
more than 2500 GRBs between 1991 and 2000. The observations performed
by this experiment have shown remarkable properties: more...
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