Testing Einstein's special relativity with Fermi's short hard gamma-ray burst GRB090510

Understand

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe and probe physics under extreme conditions.

• GRBs divide into two classes, of short and long duration, thought to originate from different types of progenitor systems.
• The physics of their gamma-ray emission is still poorly known, over 40 years after their discovery, but may be probed by their highest-energy photons.
• Here we report the first detection of high-energy emission from a short GRB with measured redshift, GRB 090510, using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.