Current Issues

Cosmic explosions are observed in many astrophysical environments. They range in scale from hydromagnetic instabilities in the terrestrial magnetotail and solar "nanoflares" to cosmological gamma ray bursts, supernovae and the protracted intervals of nuclear activity that produce the giant quasars and radio galaxies. There are many parallels in the analyses of the explosion sites that are highlighted at this workshop, specifically stellar coronae, accretion disks, supernovae and compact objects. In this introductory talk, some general issues are discussed and some more specific questions relating to the individual sites are raised.