Some of the most powerful singular explosions in the Universe seem to be happening in intergalactic space, and astronomers aren’t happy about it . Gamma-ray bursts are terrifying. They come in two general kinds: Long ones that last for more than two seconds, and short ones, called sGRBs, that last for less than two seconds. Either way, the total energy emitted is immense. For that short time they can be trillions of times more luminous than the Sun.  Long GRBs are caused when a massive star’s core collapses and forms a black hole , sending out two powerful beams of energy that tear through the star. Short ones are caused when either a pair of binary superdense neutron stars collide and merge or a single neutron star is destroyed by a black hole. Either way a black hole ( or a powerful magnetar ) is left behind, and the merger causes an intense and powerful explosion.…