The Cataclysmic Death of Stars
a teaspoon would weigh more than a billion tons. In the most massive stars the collapse leaves
only a voracious pit called a black hole.
At this point, Woosley believes--before the collapse somehow turns into an explosion--some
supernovas unleash a blast of gamma rays. Woosley's interest in these bursts goes back decades,
when they were so mysterious that over a hundred more or less serious ideas about their cause
were in play, from "starquakes" to the exhaust plumes of alien spacecraft. But his fascination
deepened in the early 1990s, when a spacecraft called the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory
showed that gamma-ray bursts originate far beyond our galaxy. To appear as bright as they do,
they had to be more energetic than anyone had imagined--far brighter than supernovas,
Woosley's first love.
They also needed a source of energy far beyond what any ordinary star could provide. Perhaps
annaabi.ee 
