Gamma-ray bursts, served two ways

Two recent revelations about the formation of gamma-ray bursts have inspired Cosm's finest chef to create a pair of truly galactic recipes. Bon Appétit!

Recipe 1: Black hole and star flambé

This delightful recipe is slow-burner that will certainly surprise your guests and keeps on giving that gamma-ray goodness for several weeks

Until recently gamma-ray bursts were one of the biggest mysteries facing astronomy. Discovered by mistake in the 1960s by satellites looking out for Soviet nuclear weapon testing, gamma-ray bursts are short-lived blasts of gamma-ray photons that, for a fraction of a second, can outshine even the biggest galaxies.

Cosm graphic 'appears censored' in print!

Those of you who opened your Metro newspaper this morning with Cosm-induced anticipation, might have been confused to find that Cosm had not only travelled back in time to 1961, but that a crucial graphic had been rendered unreadable.

Perhaps, as it travelled between 1961 and 2011, Cosm brought with it a Soviet-era censorship officer who, although confused at being dragged into the 21st century through a tear in space-time, still managed to prevent the Metro from revealing top secret information about the Russian's Vostok 1 space craft?

It may have been something as mundane as a cock up in the printing, but the carefully targeted nature of the 'printing error' leads me to believe that a KGB agent from 1961 somehow infiltrated the Metro's headquarters in Kensington, London and 'edited' away the sensitive data about Vostok 1.

I have informed the editor of this breach in security.

In the meantime, you can read the full, uncensored graphic here at CosmOnline.

Now I must go. There is someone dressed in black at the front door....

... and the back door....

... and the windows....

.... oh boy...

... and help celebrate 50 years of mankind in space

On April 12, 1961, a human left the surface of the Earth and travelled into space... for the first time.

During his 108 minutes in space, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to gaze down upon the small blue world we call home. But what was it like to sail silently over the oceans and continents from hundreds of miles above the Earth?

Award-winning filmmaker Christopher Riley and astronaut Paolo Nespoli have teamed to create 'First Orbit', a film that attempts to recreate Gagarin’s experiences. By closely matching the orbital path of the International Space Station to that of Vostok 1 and filming the view, they have captured a new high definition view of Gagarin’s journey.