Massive young stars nearing the end of their short lives commonly explode in these regions.
Astronomers associate these long duration GRBs, that can last from seconds to minutes, with a type of stellar explosion common in young massive stars.
Over the past few months, short duration GRBs have finally been localized and found to occur in different types of regions -- not only blue regions rich in star formation.
Many astronomers therefore now theorize that short GRBs, which typically last less than one second, are the result of a different progenitor process than long GRBs.
