Flash!: The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe - Hardcover

Schilling, Govert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521800536 ISBN 13: 9780521800532

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2002

Synopsis

About three times a day our sky flashes with a powerful pulse of gamma ray bursts (GRB), invisible to human eyes but not to astronomers' instruments. The sources of this intense radiation are likely to be emitting, within the span of seconds or minutes, more energy than the sun will in its entire 10 billion years of life. Where these bursts originate, and how they come to have such incredible energies, is a mystery scientists have been trying to solve for three decades. The phenomenon has resisted study -- the flashes come from random directions in space and vanish without trace -- until very recently. In what could be called a cinematic conflation of Flash Gordon and The Hunt for Red October, Govert Schilling's Flash!: The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe describes the exciting and ever-changing field of GRB research. Based on interviews with leading scientists, Flash! provides an insider's account of the scientific challenges involved in unravelling the enigmatic nature of GRBs. A science writer who has followed the drama from the very start, Schilling describes the ambition and jealousy, collegiality and competition, triumph and tragedy, that exists among those who have embarked on this recherche. Govert Schilling is a Dutch science writer and astronomy publicist. He is a contributing editor of Sky and Telescope magazine, and regularly writes for the news sections of Science and New Scientist. Schilling is the astronomy writer for de Volkskrant, one of the largest national daily newspapers in The Netherlands, and frequently talks about the Universe on Dutch radio broadcasts. He is the author of more than twenty popular astronomy books, and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles on astronomy.

About this title

Book Description

Gamma ray bursts are the biggest explosions since the Big Bang. Until their accidental discovery by secret military satellites, no-one knew of their existence. Now astronomers all over the world are searching for these mysterious bursts of gamma rays, which are thought to be signs of the creation of black holes billions of light years away. Based on interviews with leading scientists, Flash! describes the exciting and fast moving field of gamma ray burst research.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Dutch

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0521800536
• ISBN 13: 9780521800532
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304