NASA Detects Nearby Mystery Explosion 329
starexplorer2001 writes "Space.com is reporting that NASA has detected a 'totally new' mystery explosion near our galaxy." From the article: "The event, detected Feb. 18, looks something like a gamma-ray burst (GRB), scientists said. But it is much closer--about 440 million light-years away--than others. And it lasted about 33 minutes. Most GRBs are billions of light-years away and last less than a second or just a few seconds."
Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:3, Interesting)
Think of it this way - life appeared about a billion years ago, so that was twice as long ago as when this event happened. We're seeing an event that happenned a little before the dinosaurs appeared.
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:3, Informative)
I think you're a bit off. Life appeared very soon after the Earth formed - a bit over four billion years ago. IIRC, multicellular life got going at about a billion years ago, and vertebrates invaded the land about half a billion years ago.
Of course if you happen to live in Kansas then YMMV.
Universe (Score:5, Informative)
Other findings of WMAP include the makeup of the universe as 4% matter, 23% dark matter, and 73% dark energy, and a flat geometry for the universe.
Best estimates for the age of our solar system are currently about 4.6 billion years. Life ostensibly started very quickly, on a cosmological timeline. IIRC, earliest evidence of life points to around 3.5 billion years ago.
But your point about it being a lot more recent on a cosmological scale are correct.
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:2)
Was the origianl post. Then someone made a comment connecting lightyears to the age of the universe. That's a lot closer that 10 billion light years away, which is about the age of the universe
AFAIK the origal post was joking about it being close to us spacial not close to us in time. Besides I thought it was accepted pratice to refer to things we see now as happening now.
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:2)
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:2)
Hell yeah. It's VERY close. Compared to the distances at which gamma-ray bursts are typically observed, this is right in front of our metaphorical nose.
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:2)
The number is big, yes. But only because you're using a unit that doesn't lend itself well to the distances measured. It's like measuring the volume of oceans in pints.
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:2)
It's a hell of a lot of light years -- 440 million light years. If the universe is 17 billion years old, as it was last time I checked, that's about 2% of the radius of the universe, a respectable number. Or more locally, M31 in Andromeda is "only" 2.9 million light years away, so the "nearby" explosion is 150 times further than that.
You might get away with "cosmologic
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:2)
Re:Is this some new meaning of the word 'nearby'? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Remember horseshoes and hand grenades? (Score:2)
Well close only counts with black holes, neutron stars, and galactic explosions.
I mean if a neutron star passed within a hundred million miles of us, we'd be f**ked.
Meaningless (Score:2)
The Milky Way is around 946,052,840,000,000,000 km in diameter (our galaxy galaxy, not the candy bar, though I wish).
That's 4,400 times the diameter of the galaxy
pardon me (Score:4, Funny)
Two words (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Two words (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Two words (Score:2)
Do disturbances in the Force propagate at the speed of light?
And we're sure... (Score:4, Funny)
Genisis? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Genisis? (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually thought that the explosion of the Death Star, which occurred "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" would have just about reached us by now. Watch for a second similar "mystery" explosion in about ten years.
Re:Genisis? No, Bruce Banner! (Score:2)
Well, green is probably a bad color for me.
Alt-F4 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Alt-F4 (Score:4, Funny)
Early reports mention that one is now invisible, another turned to stone, one can now stretch, and the cocky one can set himself on fire.
OMG! (Score:4, Funny)
Mystery Explosion? (Score:2)
Their first album would need to be called something like Galactic Sorcery, Gems of Alchemy, or Bells of Illusion.
War! (Score:2)
Maybe one of them blinked first.
Re:War! (Score:2)
Re:War! (Score:2)
somewhere in the U.P. (Score:2)
"Mystery Explosion" only 440 million light-years away. Take exit Alpha Gamma 12, Just past Blorgon 7.
If this makes no sense to you, then you have never lived or spent any significant amount of time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You poor, poor troll [wikipedia.org]. Go home and kiss your children.
I'm confused (Score:2)
Does this mean the event happened 440 million years ago and we're just now detecting it because information about it has finally arrived? The physics of spacetime have always puzzled me.
Re:I'm confused (Score:5, Informative)
In actual fact, when you look at, say, a chair, you're actually seeing the chair as it was several (nano/pico/something, not sure of the exact time interval) seconds ago (a very small time period).
Re:I'm confused (Score:3, Interesting)
Quantam entanglement can.
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Well, unfortunately, it's neither. "400 million light years" is close enough so that we can get away with this kind of approximation, but astronomers really don't talk about "distance" at scales much larger than this because it doesn't have much meaning. The "400 million" number was probably derived fr
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
-l
Re:I'm confused (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I'm confused (Score:3, Interesting)
<nitpick>
Single particles can. For real life example see Cherekov radiation [wikipedia.org].
</nitpick>
Re:I'm confused (Score:2, Interesting)
Technically you are correct. However, what most people mean is nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vaccuum. Cherekov radiation is just an example of a particle traveling faster than the speed of light in air. While difficult, this is (obviously) not impossible. The speed of light varies depending on the medium it's traveling in, just like sound.
Now, if you accept the quantum mechanics view of the universe, theoretically some things can go faster than the spee
More nitpicking (Score:2)
The general idea
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
In the case of Cherekov radiation the particles aren't traveling faster than C. The single particles phase velocity is traveling faster than the group velocity of the rest of the light. This causes the blue glow which is similar to an object breaking the sound barrier. But group velocity never exceeded C. Remember, light can slow down too.
As of "now" it is accepted that nothing travels faster than C.
Even this [iitk.ac.in] experiment did not conclude that the particle traveled faster than light. Only that the
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
It really depends on how for away a chair is.
I believe the light travels about 12 inches in a nanosecond.
Re:I'm confused (Score:4, Interesting)
Google [google.com] agrees.
It makes you realize just how fast multi-Gigahertz processors are, doesn't it? Look over at your computer - by the time the light from it reaches your eyes, it's probably already working on it's next instruction.
Far enough from Earth (Score:2)
Sweet! Just like that Star Trek TOS episode... Squire of Gothos.
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
You're not dealing with the lightspeed delay there, though; the time taken for the light to travel from car to retina is totally insignificant. You're comp
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
{chuckle}
Reference for the art-awareness-challenged. [wikipedia.org]
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
In fact, better check outside the window...
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
My first thought was maybe somebody triggered their auto-destruct.
The REAL Question... (Score:2)
That started as a joke, but now I really want to know: Why DO we care?
Re:The REAL Question... (Score:2)
I think.
Re:The REAL Question... (Score:2)
Re:The REAL Question... (Score:2)
Why do we care about most things in the news -- hardly any affect us personally or directly. If you insist on a practical application; this is a sign of a massive explosion, a gigantic energy release. If we survive, we will need to know how to do things like that in a few million years -- they'd be ultimate WMDs, sterilizing an entire galaxy, or more hopefully have a constructive use.
Re:The REAL Question... (Score:2)
Most humans, and perhaps some higher mammals, would be curious as to the nature, cause, and ultimate ramifications of the explosion. Most of us would like to investigate it. Perhaps the explosion is related to other, smaller
Re:The REAL Question... (Score:2)
Thank you.
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Assuming the explosion site is moving only slowly relative to us, which it almost certainly is - then yep, that's exactly what it means. If we're in rapid motion relative to each other then things get a little more complicated, because the meaning of the word 'ago' gets rather blurred...
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Re:I'm confused (Score:2)
Yes. Though it doesn't matter that it happened that long ago.
The physics of spacetime have always puzzled me.
Then here's one for you: since it could not have had any causal effect on us until its light propogated to us, in a very real sense for us it has only just happened.
So 440 million years ago 440 million lightyears away is really right now.
Slashdot gets scooped again! (Score:3, Funny)
Nothing to see! (Score:2)
Obviously (Score:2)
Brrrrr (Score:2)
(yes, yes, speed of light, 440 million years ago, whatever)
I know what it was! (Score:2)
Blame Orrin Hatch (Score:2)
Re:Blame Orrin Hatch (Score:2)
Re:Blame Orrin Hatch (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:how visible would a supernova be? (Score:2)
Keck and the other scopes on Mauna Kea will, though, sometimes try to sneak a peek at a "high-priority" target like this, if they can find the time in their busy schedules.
Oh, along with Roches
"33"? (Score:2)
Intersting... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Intersting... (Score:2)
Must be WMDs (Score:2)
Lets get that space program ramped up to save the galaxy!
Old school ref (Score:2)
Don't worry... (Score:2)
search no further (Score:2)
Obviously... (Score:2)
Obviously they get compressed together over a long journey. Has anyone considered this?
Remember, no one knows as much as they think they do. When you do, the Universe keeps proving you wrong.
Re:Obviously... (Score:2)
A great many people. And it runs the other way --- radiation gets spread out due to cosmic expansion over a long journey, so we actually see the phenomena in slow motion.
Here's a thought... (Score:2)
For the technical details, see ... (Score:5, Informative)
IAU Circular 8674, which states in part
There is a good deal of news in the GRBLog:
[utexas.edu]http://grad40.as.utexas.edu/grblog.php [utexas.edu]
Just search for "GRB 060218".
It appears to be a Type Ib/c supernova -- meaning a massive star, which has lost most of its hydrogen envelope, running out of fuel in its core and exploding -- in a relatively nearby galaxy. By "nearby", I mean "at a redshift of z=0.033", which is still much farther away than the Virgo or Coma clusters of galaxies.
It is currently around magnitude 18, and may brighten by a magnitude or so, but will still require a pretty big telescope and sensitive camera to detect.
Re:For the technical details, see ... (Score:5, Informative)
I'll have a go...
A very big telescope in Chile (GMOS) took an image of the object and recorded it's spectrum (light broken down by wavelength and recorded). From the spectrum, there is continuum radiation than has intensity proportional to the wavelength raised to some power. However, there are also features (spectral lines) in the spectrum which suggest it is a Type Ib or Ic supernova (exploding star).
Supernovae like these occur due to the collapse of the core of a star as there is not enough fuel to sustain fusion to keep the star from collapsing under it's own gravity. The implosion creates a massive amount of heat which causes the explosion we see. Different to the proposed mechanism for a Ia Supernova.
It's actually pretty close (in universe terms). (Still a damn long way away!) The redshift (z) is defined at wikipedia [wikipedia.org]. The Virgo and Coma clusters are large nearby galaxy clusters.
Each decrease in magnitude is 100^1/5 times brighter than the previous one (it's a little confusing). A magnitude 0 star is about 2.5 times brighter than a magnitude 1 which is 2.5times brighter than magnitude 2, and so on. The brightest star in the sky (Sirius - visible tonight) is magnitude -1.6 (negatives are fine). The dimmest star you'll see with unaided eyesight is about 6 in really good dark skies, about 2 or 3 from a city. The Sun is -26.7, the moon about -13. This object is about 60000 times dimmer than a magnitude 6 star. (100^(12/5)).
Amateur telescopes with ccd cameras should be able to record this. It'd be pretty much impossible to actually see with the human eye and a telescope.
In brief, a star went bang; it's the first time we've been able to see it this early in the explosion; it's fairly close (but not too close); Don't bother to try to look for it in binoculars.
What's wrong? (Score:3, Funny)
Luke: I knew I shouldn't have had the extra beans on that jawa burrito.
StarDrive Malfunction (Score:2)
Damn terrorists (Score:2)
YAY! (Score:2)
SETI picked up the following radio transmission... (Score:5, Funny)
"Hey, Billy-Joe! Watch THIS!"
Man, what a disappointment! (Score:2)
Let me get this straight: A half-billion years ago, outside our galaxy, for half an hour, there was some unusual gamma radiation.
Yep, NASA detects Nearby Mystery Explosion certainly didn't pique my interest for what turns out to be of only vague academic value. No, sir!
You mean you didn't hear? (Score:2)
'Totally new' (Score:2)
I feel a disturbance in the force... (Score:2)
Mystery explosion (Score:2)
Gamma ray bursts remain puzzling... (Score:2)
This article suggests that this gamma ray burst may simply be from a different angle than the continuous bombardments of gamma ray bursts that we have been studying since the beginning of the cold war
Re:aliens? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Disturbance (Score:2)
Re:Do not attempt this at home (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Read More (Score:2)
I think it's VGER.