I have mentioned before that I would like to see who could read and debate the contents of a scientific paper rather than a press release. I am betting the percentage on this board would be much higher than the general population.

With that in mind, I have selected a paper to read and debate. It is short (less than 4 pages) for a scientific publication and one of the more accessible papers I have read.

The paper announces the possible detection of an "orphan" gamma ray burst afterglow. Normally, gamma ray bursts (grbs) are detected by satellites and follow up observations detect an optical afterglow. In this paper, they argue that a bright optical transient is a grb afterglow for which now gamma rays were detected (no satellite was observing that part of the sky at the time).

I also like this paper because there is no proof of what they found. They outline their methods and reasons for the conclusion. Let's have at it and see what we think here!

The paper can be downloaded as a .pdf file at

http://www.arxiv.org/PS_cache/astro-...11/0111054.pdf

Have at it!

Rob