Cake Talk by Alessio Mei
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the brightest cosmic explosions in the Universe. They come in two flavours: the ones with short durations are produced by the merger of compact objects, while the long ones follow the death of very massive stars. This classification was able to describe GRB progenitors until recently, when the two bright long GRB 211211A and GRB 230307A exploded each in association with a kilonova. This strongly points toward a compact merger origin, at odds with what their durations would suggest. These new findings are in tension with our understanding of GRB progenitors and jet launching mechanisms, challenging the current theoretical models and opening new possibilities for multi-messenger observations of long GRBs.