Related papers: Astrophysics: Most distant cosmic blast seen

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events at cosmological distances. They provide unique laboratory to investigate fundamental physical processes under extreme conditions. Due to extreme luminosities, GRBs are detectable at…

It is generally believed that in the epoch prior to the formation of the first stars, the Universe was completely dark (the period is therefore known as the Dark Ages). Usually, the start of this epoch is placed at the photon decoupling. In…

The origin of cosmic rays is one of the major unresolved astrophysical questions. In particular, the highest energy cosmic rays observed possess macroscopic energies and their origin is likely to be associated with the most energetic…

Cosmic ray astronomy attempts to identify and study the sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays. It is unique in its reliance on charged particles as the information carriers. While no discrete source of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays has…

I give a brief overview of cosmic ray physics, highlighting some key questions and how they will be addressed by new experiments.

The origin of Galactic cosmic-ray ions has remained an enigma for almost a century. Although it has generally been thought that they are accelerated in the shock waves associated with powerful supernova explosions-for which there have been…

Some few hundred million years after the big bang the Universe was illuminated by the first stars and galaxies thereby bringing an end to the cosmological dark ages. Since the installation of WFC3 on the Hubble Space Telescope our ability…

Recent measurements of the properties of cosmic rays above 10^17 eV are summarized and implications on our contemporary understanding of their origin are discussed. Cosmic rays with energies exceeding 10^20 eV have been measured, they are…

Cosmic gamma-ray bursts are one of the great frontiers of astrophysics today. They are a playground of relativists and observers alike. They may teach us about the death of stars and the birth of black holes, the physics in extreme…

The problem of the origin of Cosmic Rays is now over a century old and while there has been substantial progress, especially in the last decade, there are still open questions. The question of "origin" is open to at least three possible…

Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) have remained a puzzle for many high-energy astrophysicists since their discovery in 1967. With the advent of the X-ray satellites BeppoSAX and RossiXTE, it has been possible to carry out deep multi-wavelength…

(This is a general physics level overview article about hidden sectors, and how they motivate searches for long-lived particles. Intended for publication in Physics Today.) Searches for new physics at the Large Hadron Collider have so far…

The supernova explosion of 1054 AD, which originated the Crab Nebula and Pulsar, is probably the astronomical event which has been most deeply studied by means of historical sources. However, many mysteries and inconsistencies, both among…

Physical constraints on the sources of fast radio bursts are few, and therefore viable theoretical models are many. However, no one model can match all the available observational characteristics, meaning that these radio bursts remain one…

Since their first discovery in the late 1960s, Gamma-ray bursts have attracted an exponentially growing interest from the international community due to their central role in the most highly debated open questions of the modern research of…

The possible low-frequency radio emission from the progenitors of gamma ray bursts can experience a delay from tens of seconds to hours on the way to the observer due to the dispersion in galactic and extragalactic plasma, and thus reach…

Gamma-ray Bursts are the most powerful objects in the Universe. Discovered in the 1960's as brief flashes of gamma-radiation, we now know they emit across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, are located in distant galaxies and comprise two…

We consider possible observable signals from explosive events in the very early universe, ``bursts". These could be expected in connection with massive black hole or ``baby universe'' formation. We anticipate that such major disruptions of…

Research in cosmic rays is now nearly a century old, but most of the fundamental questions in this field remain unanswered, on the other hand the perspectives of future studies in the next decade are very bright. New detectors will provide…

The history of astrometry, the branch of astronomy dealing with the positions of celestial objects, is a lengthy and complex chronicle, having its origins in the earliest records of astronomical observations more than two thousand years…