Scientists have solved the mystery of the origin of gamma ray bursts, the most powerful explosions known in space, NASA said Wednesday, according to DPA. The bursts are split-second flashes, brighter than a billion suns, that have been too fast for scientists to catch. But the U.S. space agency unveiled that they occur when a black hole collides with a neutron star, or as the result of the collisions between two neutron stars. "Gamma-ray bursts in general are notoriously difficult to study, but the shortest ones have been next to impossible to pin down," said Dr. Neil Gehrels, the lead investigator of NASA's Swift satellite. "All that has changed. We now have the tools in place to study these events." The satellite detected a burst in May and NASA's High-Energy Transit Explorer detected another in July. Based on these findings, the theory was developed. The findings will be published in the October 6 issue of Nature magazine. NASA said the new discoveries could help scientist detect gravitational waves - ripples in space time that have never been seen. "Short gamma-ray bursts could tell scientists when and where to look for the ripples," a NASA statement said. More than 130 scientists are in the project, the agency said. "We had a hunch that short gamma-ray bursts came from a neutron star crashing into a black hole or another neutron star, but these new detections leave no doubt," said Dr. Derek Fox, a researcher with Pennsylvania State University.
