Gamma-Ray Burst Aimed Directly at Earth

Centauri Dreams ^ | 9/10/08

[Tanniker Smith]

Hmmmm, this might explain something. Recently I notice that when I've gotten angry that my skin starts turning a little greenish ... and then I kinda black out and when I wake up, I'm usually somewhere else and my shirt has been shredded and my pants are ripped. And I can't find my shoes.

I wonder if it's related....

[Steely Tom]

Gamma rays are photons. They travel at exactly the speed of light, not 99.99995% of the speed of light, or 99.99999995% of the speed of light.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

A massive gamma-ray burst detected last March, believed to be the brightest ever seen, turns out to have been aimed directly at the Earth.

Thank goodness the star that caused this wasn't closer - could have been a major extinction event.

[Skibane]

ZOMG, someone out there is* shining a gamma ray flashlight at us!

IT'S A SIGNAL!!!

*Or was, roughly 7.5 billion years ago...

[saganite]

I think I saw her in bed with Kirk on a star trek episode!

[Ken H]

99.99995(%) of the speed of light...

But not the speed of light... asymptotic.

Hey, watch the insults!

:)

[dfwgator]

"Where's the Ka-Boom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Ka-Boom!"

[LukeL]

Your suspicions would be right, I can no longer find the one that is in color.

[Raster Man]

Barack Obama: “And, and, and the gamma....ray burst, er, that you know...or let me just say, er, er, that, that, you know, this this this ....burst, and like I’ve always said, er, er, is....not good...for this, er, er, you know, country.”

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

[Robert A Cook PE]

“Use the Force, Luke. Use the Force.”

A ping. At twice the speed of light.

(Now, how did they aim this death gamma ray gamma shooter 7.5 billion years ago to arrive now (7.5 billion years after they shot the death ray gamma shooter), when they couldn’t take an observation on where we are now then if they were where they were when they were 7.5 billion years ago to shoot the death gamma ray 7.5 billion years ago, because they wouldn’t know where we now until 7.5 billion years after they tried to spot us 15 billion years ago when neither of us was where we are now to shoot the death ray gamma shooter?.)

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

If it had been as close as the Andromeda Galaxy (1.5 million LT) it would have been more than one billion times as bright, somewhere between the Sun and the Moon.

Of course, one would expect these things to be distributed with a density inversely proportional to the square of the distance, or iow, the relative frequency of occurance is inversely proportional to the relative brightness. (Relative brightness goes as one-on-R-square, volume per unit range goes as R-square.)

If it had been on the further edge of the Milky Way, it would be as bright as the sun.

[Blogatron]

Dead people. They're leaving the cemetery and boogieing to the polls.

[isom35]

I was wondering if it might have come from the Neutral Zone.

[TribalPrincess2U]

That explains those hot flashes I had back in March.

[Salamander]

LOL!

[rollo tomasi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipbN0db2wnA

[adorno]

Gamma-Ray Burst Aimed Directly at Earth

"T" (terrestrial) calling home?

[mikrofon]

Good thing they didn’t turn on that Large Hadron Collider at the same time last March.....

[GadareneDemoniac]

Go into town and round up a posse! They’re shootin’ at us!