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Posted on 11/22/2013 7:53:51 AM PST by Red Badger
An exploded star some 3.8 billion light-years away is forcing scientists to overhaul much of what they thought they knew about gamma-ray bursts – intense blasts of radiation triggered, in this case, by a star tens of times more massive than the sun that exhausted its nuclear fuel, exploded, then collapsed to form a black hole.
Last April, gamma rays from the blast struck detectors in gamma-ray observatories orbiting Earth, triggering a frenzy of space- and ground-based observations. Many of them fly in the face of explanations researchers have developed during the past 30 years for the processes driving the evolution of a burst from flash to fade out, according to four research papers appearing Friday in the journal Science.
“Some of our theories are just going down the drain,” said Charles Dermer, an astrophysicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and a member of one of the teams reporting on their observations of the burst, known as GRB 130427A.
The event, dubbed a long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB), is typically seen in the distant, early universe, Dr. Dermer said during a briefing Thursday. This one was much closer. And while typical long-duration bursts last from a few seconds to a few minutes, GRB 130427A put on its display for 20 hours.
The event's duration, relatively close proximity, and the range of observatories in space and on the ground that could monitor it at a range of wavelengths has provided scientists with an unprecedented opportunity to explore the workings of one of the more extreme ends a star can inflict on itself.
The encouraging news: Traits seen in the gamma-ray emissions from initial burst through the afterglow compare favorably to the traits seen in the behavior of gamma rays in more-distant, long-duration bursts.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Astronomy Ping!..............
Dermer concluded the interview by saying "it makes me so angry". In related news, the Los Alamos National Laboratory was destroyed in an unexplained accident shortly after the Dermer interview. His body has not been found in the rubble.
Close proximity and 3.8 billion light years away seem like an odd combination.
Yet, they know we're all gonna die from global warming.
And God grins and says: "Ya' think?"
If they're wrong, and it's only a few million light years away, I'm going to be really upset.
3.8 billion light years away out of a possible 15-16 or so.....................
So a quarter of the way to infinity?:)
“Dermer concluded the interview by saying “it makes me so angry”.”
He should take a cue from his fundamentalist climate change colleagues. Just maintain that he is still correct despite evidence to the contrary and blame the oceans for observations not matching expected results.
So it exploded 3.8 billion plus years ago..
“Some of our theories are just going down the drain,”
That means your theories were wrong or inadequate, idiot! You guys think you know it all. You don’t. Why not just admit that the universe is much more than you scientists can even begin to understand?
Yet underscores the vastness of space.
I am curious about the orientation of the polar jets. Are there any working hypotheses about whether gamma jets orient in relation to other objects, such as galactic center supermassive black holes?
Since there is no ‘up’ or ‘down’ in space, the alignment is purely random. The ‘axis’ is simply from whatever point of space you view it...............
“Some of our theories are just going down the drain,”..............into a really huge black hole..................
God lets us see the way he does things and lets us figure it out. I don't know why he would have the response you think he does.
Good question. It’s likely that gamma jets point in random directions, but it’s been reported recently that planetary nebula have a preferred alignment.
http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/planetary-nebula-align-to-baffle-astronomers/
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