In the News, some doubt creeping into Gamma Ray Burst origin theory:
Neutron stars may be too weak to power some gamma-ray bursts
Quote:
A new analysis of four extremely bright bursts observed by NASA's Fermi satellite suggests that the remnant from a long-duration gamma-ray burst is most likely a black hole – not a rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron star, or magnetar since such a burst emits more energy than is theoretically possible from a magnetar.
"Some of the events we have been finding seem to be pushing right up against this total limit for a neutron star progenitor system,"
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..so, the real issue could be the measurement accuracy ..
Quote:
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"The question we have been trying to answer is: What is the true energy release from these events?" Cenko said. "We can measure all the light emitted – very high energy gamma rays, and, at later times, X-ray, optical and radio afterglow emissions – but that doesn't provide a very good estimate, because GRBs emit in relatively narrow jets. We have to get an idea of the geometry of this outflow, that is, how collimated the jets are."
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So, to falsify the GRB-emission-from-neutron-stars theory, they're looking for more precise measurements.
Quasar emission measurements also endure the same challenges.
Cheers