Posted on 06/06/2005 12:18:35 PM PDT by ladtx
A search for the remains of a nearby stellar explosion has come up empty. Astronomers observed the blast site of the supernova, SN 1987A, with the Hubble Space Telescope, but could not find any sign of the dense stellar core.
"We think a neutron star was formed. The question is: Why don't we see it?" astronomer Genevieve Graves of UC Santa Cruz said today.
A neutron star is an extremely dense ball of subatomic particles, which theory says can form as the core of a massive star collapses after exploding. This is what is believed to have happened in 1987, when a star with 20 times the mass of our Sun blew up, 165,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
"Therein lies the mystery -- where is that missing neutron star?" said Robert Kirshner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
Neutron stars are often detected as pulsars when they emit intense beams of radio waves, like a lighthouse. It may be too soon to see radio flashes from the remnant of SN 1987A, since theory predicts that pulsars take between 100 to 100,000 years to develop after a supernova.
A young neutron star could, however, be seen if it is swallowing up nearby gas and debris from the explosion. This accreted material would heat up and emit light. But when the team of astronomers scoured the area of SN 1987A, they found no signature of this accretion.
"A neutron star could just be sitting there inside SN 1987A, not accreting matter and not emitting enough light for us to see," said Peter Challis from the CfA.
Future observations may uncover this quiet remnant by studying the infrared emission from dust clouds in the vicinity, which may be reprocessing the weak ultraviolet and visible light coming from the neutron star.
A supernova from a more massive star can form a black hole, instead of a neutron star. The progenitor of SN 1987A is right near the dividing line, so it may have created a black hole. Still, a black hole would be indirectly detectable by the same accretion mechanism that was not seen in these latest results.
Nah, we're on Daylight Savings Time now.
This is Bush's fault!!!
He said there was a Supernova Core out there....now we can't find it! Just like the WMD's.
Let's send Kerry out there in space to find it! (After all, you know he went all the way to Cambodia after serving in Vietnam! ) OOOps! Just got the Kerry quote off NBC, "That Supernova was out there before it wasn't!!"
It's still Bush's fault!
Sloan got it in the season-finale cliffhanger.
I last saw it in my clothes drier. Darn it, one of my socks is missing too......
You sure got Kerry pegged!
It was in the Clinton adult bookstore and massage parlor, but he sold it to either Kim il Jong or AQ Khan.
Where are you little star?
(Where are you?)Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh
Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-oohTwinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder where you are
Wish I may, wish I might
Make this wish come true tonight
Searched all over for a love
You're the one I'm thinkin' ofWhoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-ooh
Whoah oh, oh, oh-uh-oh
Ratta ta ta too-ooh-oohTwinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder where you are
High above the clouds somewhere
Send me down a love to share.....
SG1 sent it through a Stargate to PX11539, where it was sucked into a black hole, triggering the Supernova that incinerated Apophos' fleet. I thought everyone knew that...
"Core of Supernova Goes Missing"
It's probably next to the left sock that disappeared from my dryer Friday.
Bush's fault.
So it didn't happen on Bush's watch. Say, who was president 165,020 years ago?
"We think a neutron star was formed. The question is: Why don't we see it?" astronomer Genevieve Graves of UC Santa Cruz said today.
The force...use the force!!
Maybe it's in the stellar outhouse taking a core dump. Give a star some privacy, will yas?
A cat is placed in a sealed box. Attached to the box is an apparatus containing a radioactive nucleus and a canister of poison gas. The experiment is set up so that there is a 50% chance of the nucleus decaying in one hour. If the nucleus decays, it will emit a particle that triggers the apparatus, which opens the canister and kills the cat. According to quantum mechanics, the unobserved nucleus is described as a superposition (mixture) of "decayed nucleus" and "undecayed nucleus". However, when the box is opened the experimenter sees only a "decayed nucleus/dead cat" or a "undecayed nucleus/living cat."Contrary to popular belief, Schrödinger did not intend this thought experiment to indicate that he believed that the dead-alive cat would actually exist; rather he considered the quantum mechanical theory to be incomplete and not representative of reality in this case. Since a cat clearly must either be alive or dead (there is no state between alive and dead, e.g. half-dead) surely the same must be true of the nucleus. It must be either decayed or not decayed.The question is: when does the system stop existing as a mixture of states and become one or the other? The purpose of the experiment is to illustrate that quantum mechanics is incomplete without some rules to describe when the wavefunction collapses and the cat becomes dead or remains alive instead of a mixture of both.
However, Dirk did perform the experiment, and using his clairvoyant abilities (rumors of which he spread possessing through his vehement denial of possessing them) wanted to test Schrödinger's postulate. To his suprise, Gently discovered the box to be empty. This was a most suprising development, in not so much that the cat had been stolen, but just who would want to steal a cat?
Now there has been the development of an extremely dense and higly radioactive stellar core that's been stolen! Its not so much a question of who'd want to steal such a thing, but just what connection is there between these two events? Nobody would deny that a field trip is absolutely necessary in order to examine the crime scene. That, of course, means a site visit to the radio-telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Now it is my understanding that Carnival Cruise Lines do provide transportation to that destination does it not? I'm certain these cases (being interconnected somehow) would require undercover fact finding mission to be done on certain beaches of Puerto Rico. Now what undercover fact finding mission on certain Puerto Rican beaches wouldn't require a certain quantity of umbrelly drinks?
Obviously, all expenses incurred to date (at least seven years running) in this endeavor are the obligation of a certain Mrs. Sauskind (to whom belonged the cat Roderick that Ghently used in his recreation of the Schroedinger Cat expiriment) - expenses which I believe in part contain the following (while albeit seemingly expensive it is the reason they're called expenses):
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