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,"
..so, the real issue could be the measurement accuracy ..
Quote:
"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."
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.
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.Just wondering Neutron stars are collapsed stars (right?).
