Abstract:
Since the first novae observed thousands of years ago, transient events in the otherwise static night sky caught the attention of amateur and professional astronomers. With the advent of modern telescopes, the existence of rapid vanishing gamma-ray emitters were also brought to light. Nowadays, supernova (SN) and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) are among the very few alternatives we have in order to study the earliest stages of the universe. In this talk, we present an introductory description of these two objects (the most powerful cosmic explosions to date), and describe in simple terms how they can provide information about astrophysical structures and cosmological evolution.