Gamma-ray astronomy - Bursting out all over

The origin of γ-ray bursts, events which release massive amounts of energy, has been an enduring puzzle in astronomy. As discussed at a meeting last month and papers in this week'sNature, however, evidence from X-ray, optical and radio afterglows continues to stream in and harden two conclusions that most, perhaps all, of these bursts come from the merger of two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole; and that the bursts are occurring at cosmological distances near the edge of the observable Universe.