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Gamma-ray bursts focus of Dec. 8 Director's Colloquium

A few times a day the sky is lit up by brilliant flashes of gamma-rays, and, though discovered more than three decades ago, astronomers at that time were in the dark about the origins of these bursts. Advances in gamma-ray research and subsequent findings will be the focus of a Director's Colloquium at 1:10 p.m., Monday (Dec. 8) in the Physics Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.

Shrinivas Kulkarni will speak on "The Brilliant Gamma-ray Bursts: Death Cries Across the Universe." The bursts appear to mark the death of massive stars and may well be the birth cries of newly formed rapidly spinning black holes, Kulkarni said.

Kulkarni is a McArthur professor of astronomy and planetary sciences at the California Institute of Technology. He served as the executive officer for astronomy from 1997-2000 at Caltech.

The talk is by open to all badge holders. The colloquium will be broadcast live on Labnet Channel 9 and can be accessed via the Internet using Real Media Player and IPTV technology.

For more information, see Tuesday's Daily Newsbulletin. For information about the Director's Colloquium program, go to http://stb.lanl.gov:8080/wosaserver/web?pg=/program/colloquium/index.xml online.

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