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Gamma-ray burst mystery is solved

CHICAGO, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- An international team of scientists led by a University of Chicago astronomer says it has solved the mystery of gamma-ray bursts.

The team, using three NASA satellites and several ground-based telescopes, determined the shorter of two versions of the bursts -- the most powerful explosions in the universe -- appear to be caused by the collision of closely orbiting neutron stars or one of those compact stars and a black hole, said Don Lamb, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.

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The cause of gamma-ray bursts had baffled scientists since they were discovered in 1973. The bursts last anywhere from fractions of a second to many minutes and occur several times a day.

Lamb and his co-authors describe their finding in the Oct. 6 issue of the journal Nature.

A second paper in the same issue, written by Pennsylvania State University's Derek Fox and colleagues, presents follow-up observations of a July 9 burst collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope and a variety of ground-based telescopes.

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