... Spacecraft that will search for planetary systems around 40 million stars and observe the largest explosions in the universe have been chosen as the next two missions in NASA's medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) program. ... The first mission, to be launched in 2003, is the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Explorer, a three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma ray bursts. ... During its three-year mission, Swift will also survey the sky for new black holes and other sources of cosmic gamma rays. ...

Introduction to PLASMA ASTROPHYSICS (Selected 10 lectures) Boris V. Somov Astronomical Institute and Faculty of Physics Moscow State University Pushino-na-Oke, 2008 Contents Ab out These Lectures 1 Particles and Fields: Exact Self-Consistent Description 1.1 Liouville's theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1.1 Continuity in phase space . . . . . . . . . 1.1.2 The character of particle interactions 1.1.3 The Lorentz force, gravity . . . . . . . . . 1.1.4 Collisional friction . . . . . . . . . . . .