Posted on 01/27/2009 11:39:01 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The Universe's brightest explosion ever seen was observed on 19 March this year. Now a team of scientists led by Judith Racusin from the Pennsylvania State University and colleagues from around the world have combined their data from satellites and observatories to explain what happened. The observations reveal that the jets of the gamma-ray burst called GRB 080319B were aimed almost directly at the Earth. The event was so intense that, despite happening halfway across the Universe, it could have been seen briefly with the unaided eye.
Gamma-ray bursts are the Universe's most luminous explosions. Most occur when massive stars run out of fuel. As a star collapses, it creates a black hole or neutron star that, through processes not fully understood, drives powerful gas jets outward. As the jets shoot into space, they strike gas previously shed by the star and heat it, thereby generating bright afterglows.
Early in the morning of 19 March, the Swift satellite, a joint NASA/UK/Italian mission, pinpointed an extremely bright GRB towards the constellation of Boetes, and immediately sent out an alert to observatories around the world. Two robotic wide-field optical cameras in Chile also observed the brief flash: 'Pi of the Sky,' which is operated by the Centre for Theoretical Physics in Warsaw, Poland, and TORTORA camera mounted on the 0.6-m REM telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory. Within minutes many more telescopes (including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope) were observing, allowing for the most detailed study of a bright GRB ever undertaken using data from gamma-ray to radio wavelengths.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencecentric.com ...
Somebody locked me up in a time-machine and sent me back to January.
“The team conclude that the extraordinary brightness of the 19 March burst arose from a narrow jet that shot material directly toward Earth at 99,99995 percent of the speed of light.”
sounds impressive, but they are probably misinterpreting something.
“The data clearly reveal the complexity of a GRB in which a narrow, ultra-fast jet is present within a wider, slightly slower jet”
it’s SO easy to misinterpret these things. Like the quasars who’s redshift “ABSOLUTELY 100% MUST” mean they are billions of light years away, then oops! there’s one in a nearby galaxy with a billions of lightyears redshift. suddenly “clearly, definitely” becomes “maybe, perhaps”. sounds cool though.
Looks like someone, or some thing, is trying to communicate with us.
BENEDICT XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Paul VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
God was saying hello.
See #5,
bump
or maybe the universe was having a negative reaction to kobe bryant being on ET http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1205730/
“the event was so intense that, despite happening halfway across the Universe, it could have been seen briefly with the unaided eye.”
And if you’ve seen the movie Day of the Triffids, you would have known not to stare into the gamma ray burst with the unaided eye.
Yep. It cracks me up how some Astronomers and Astrophysicists on shows like The Universe claim precise measurements to distant objects with only one point of reference and no way to accurately verify their measurements, or when they claim to fully understand processes within stars or planets, yet these stars are so distant it's akin to standing in New York and trying to look at a mosquito on the moon. Or, like so-called "dark matter". We can't see it, but it must be there, right?
Why it is that "experts" always seem to be "surprised?"
Could this be attributed to shutting down the solar spot activity?
For the answer see my tag line.
i wonder what the gamma radiation dose to us was? and where it was focused?
Sounds like a space fart. If it produces afterglows, it means they ate something hot, like Thai peppers.
Totally. surprised experts is an oxymoron.
dark matter (just undetectable, like a neutrino field permeating the universe) might actually explain a lot of the redshift we see. but yeah it’s all mights & ifs & buts
My wife cracks up when we're watching The Universe or some similar program and some scientist makes a bold statement about how they know unequivocally how some far distant phenomenon works, then I follow up their statement with "you think". I must have said "you think" about 100 times in last night's show alone.....
I'MMMMM READY!!!
The Moties.
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