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Studentcolloquium - Rasmus Larsen: Gamma-ray bursts

Info about event

Time

Thursday 28 April 2016,  at 14:15 - 15:00

Gamma-ray bursts

Rasmus Larsen

Supervisor: Maximilian Stritzinger

Thursday 28. April at 14.15

Fysisk Auditorium

While the US military was monitoring nuclear tests in space in 1967 their Vela satellites detected an intense and short-lived gamma-ray signal previously never seen. The origin of the emission was linked to the most energetic explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang: Gamma-ray bursts. These objects are driven by an ultra-relativistic outflow that releases more energy than our Sun will over its lifetime. In this colloquium I will provide an observational overview of gamma-ray bursts and describe some of the leading models that explain how these energetic events are formed and how they are linked to the death of massive stars.