Abstract
Over 25 years since their discovery, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remain an unsolved mystery. They occur about once a day, last from about 0.1 to 1000 seconds, and emit detectable radiation only at X-ray and gamma-ray energies. The spatial distribution of the sources is isotropic but inhomogeneous, inconsistent with any known galactic component. Two very different hypotheses are currently debated: either the bursts arise from an extended galactic halo, possibly populated by high velocity neutron stars, or they lie at cosmological distances and redshift effects are responsible for the apparant inhomogeneity. The current observational and theoretical status of the GRB problem will be discussed with emphasis on the central question of the distance to the sources.
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