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Space Science

Giant Explosion Observed 60

Posted by michael from the this-is-my-boomstick dept.
KFZ Versicherung writes "Space.com is reporting on the largest explosion ever seen in space. The outburst is orchestrated by a supermassive black hole that anchors a distant galaxy sitting amid a tight cluster of galaxies. The black hole has blown two huge bubbles into the galaxy, shoving aside a colossal amount of gas equal to the mass of a trillion Suns, or more than all the stars of our own Milky Way Galaxy."
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Giant Explosion Observed More

Giant Explosion Observed

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  • Publicity stunt (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nyhm ( 645982 ) * on Friday January 07, 2005 @09:59AM (#11286803)
    "... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." (Someone had to say it.)

    However, I personally think this is a publicity stunt for the upcomming Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. [go.com]

    • Re:Publicity stunt (Score:5, Funny)

      by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @10:29AM (#11287019)
      ""... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." (Someone had to say it.) "

      As heard on the news:

      Fox News: "Surgical strikes by our forces eliminated an Alderaan terrorist base today"

      CNN: "Bush's environmental policies are believed to be to blame for today's planet explosion."

      MTV News: "Christine Aguilera had to cancel her Alderaan concert tour today."

      Rush Limbaugh: "That's a few billion fewer Anderaanian feminazis to worry about."

      Boh and Tom: "ha ha ha. Heh heh heh. guffaw"

  • No, not the basketball planet! No, not the basketball planet! No No!

    (Death Star reference requirement satisfied, in an oblique way)

  • Perhaps God Sneezed (Score:3, Funny)

    by EddWo ( 180780 ) <eddwo@[ ]pop.com ['hot' in gap]> on Friday January 07, 2005 @10:04AM (#11286840)
    nt
  • Looks like Jerry Bruckheimer is at it again. Blowing up things real good for his new movie. Already, Bruce Willis has been sighted in his really hideous corduroy spacesuit.

  • checking (Score:4, Funny)

    by Fr05t ( 69968 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @10:10AM (#11286892)
    *runs out side*
    *looks at the sky*
    *runs back inside*
    It's ok everyone, move along. Nothing to see here.

  • Correction? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tylerious ( 836357 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @10:12AM (#11286897) Homepage Journal
    "A light-year -- the distance light travels in one year -- is a measure of time, too, so the galaxy is more modern than many, seen as it existed well after the bulk of galaxy formation had taken place throughout the cosmos." That's dumbing down science. Just explain off spacetime by saying a lightyear is a measure of time. *watches the world slowly evolve into a slug*
    • Devolve, actually, but I agree. Sometimes I think science journalists are hired by scientists just to make sure the populace is thoroughly confused by their research.

      Thank goodness for Brian Greene. [amazon.com]
      • Is devolving even possible? I mean, isn't evolution (grossly oversimplified) just those members of a species who have the most babies passing on the traits that cause them to have the most babies? So devolving would be the ones who have the least babies having the most babies...

        Unless of course you're applying a value judgement to the relative worth of different means of survival.

        I wonder what effect hiring the Star Trek techno babble writers would have on science jounralism...

        • I suppose if you consider a species backtracking along their previous evolutionary path, you could consider it devolution without applying a value judgement.

    • Re:Correction? (Score:5, Informative)

      by JohnFluxx ( 413620 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @11:04AM (#11287287)
      It's a bit like the usual thing about we see the sun as it was 8 seconds ago, and that what it is 'now' we will see in 8 seconds time.

      While sorta true, it's just wrong enough to be annoying. Spacetime isn't quite like that. It doesn't really make sense to talk about what the sun is like 'now', since 'now' is relative.

      Feynman has a wonderful example to explain it.
      Imagine you keep your head fixed, and you see an object in space. You then see it having a width (angle it substends) and depth (say amount your eyes have to focus or something). Because you have now got different units, you might think the width and depth to be totally different (analogous to space (meters) and time (seconds)).
      But if you move your head, you suddenly realise width and depth are an aspect of the same thing.

      It's the same for space and time.

      In fact the famous E = mc^2 can be thought of mass being in the 'wrong' units, in the same way we got confused when measuring width and depth as an angle and a focus amount. If we measure mass in units of c, you get E = m.

      • Re:Correction? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Loacher ( 816765 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @11:13AM (#11287354)
        8 minutes ago
      • But time and space seem to be the same.
        Wait, let me try at near C velocity...
      • It's a bit like the usual thing about we see the sun as it was 8 seconds ago, and that what it is 'now' we will see in 8 seconds time.

        Erm, um...its 8 minutes away (give or take, someone more pendantic can fix that). If the sun were suddenly 8 light seconds away, I think we'd be in a bit of pain here.

      • Re:Correction? (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        ". . . in the same way we got confused when measuring width and depth as an angle and a focus amount."

        Who you callin' "we", white boy? Lets me guess, you don'ts understands what Picasso be doin' wif the Neo-Cubism, do ya, honkey? Man, dat cracker be crazy!! Shit!!

  • old news (Score:5, Funny)

    by Fr05t ( 69968 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @10:15AM (#11286921)
    "The eruption is 2.6 billion light-years away, compared to more than 12 billion light-years for the most distant known galaxies. A light-year -- the distance light travels in one year -- is a measure of time, too, so the galaxy is more modern than many, seen as it existed well after the bulk of galaxy formation had taken place throughout the cosmos."

    This happened 2.6 BILLION years ago! Come on editors this is a *news* site and 2.6 Billion years old isn't new! Shesh :P
    • This happened 2.6 BILLION years ago! Come on editors this is a *news* site and 2.6 Billion years old isn't new!

      This is Slashdot.

      If you check the archives, this has probably been reported at least once a month since the development of multicellular life on Earth.

    • Or am I too forgiving of /. editors?

    • 2.6 BILLION years ago!

      Look on the bright side. At least there's no one still alive to see that its a dupe!

      -

  • *yawn* (Score:1, Redundant)

    by arkham6 ( 24514 )
    Don't you know, this is all ancient history. ;)

  • But... (Score:2, Funny)

    by the darn ( 624240 )
    Where is the kboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!

  • Largest eruption... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jarlsberg ( 643324 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @10:41AM (#11287109) Journal
    I got a pr email from NASA quoting this. The headline was something like this: LARGEST ERUPTION IN THE GALAXY. If the mail hadn't been from NASA, that would be an exceedingly naughty subject line, even for a spam message. :D
    • "The headline was something like this: LARGEST ERUPTION IN THE GALAXY"

      Are you sure that was what it said? I got one this morning trying to sell me Lev1tra and V1-AG-RA, entitled "largest erection in the galaxy"

  • Where are the pictures? (Score:4, Funny)

    by TFGeditor ( 737839 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @11:46AM (#11287669) Homepage
    "The scene was captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array." So, where are the pictures? I like pictures. Science is no fun without pictures. Pictures are cool.

  • Jeez' Louise.. (Score:3, Funny)

    by kettlechips ( 769541 ) on Friday January 07, 2005 @11:51AM (#11287722)
    "The black hole has blown two huge bubbles into the galaxy, shoving aside a colossal amount of gas equal to the mass of a trillion Suns."

    One can only conjecture as to the smell of that place.

  • Sorry (Score:2, Funny)

    by TychoCelchuuu ( 835690 )
    Sorry, that was me. I put a defective fan on my Athlon XP and then I overcloked it. My bad.
    • For someone who got his nickname from an Alderaanian, you could have come up with a better joke that that.
      • Well the Alderaan thing had been done like 8 times. And I don't want to do what they're EXPECTING: that just makes it easier for Echelon to decipher your next move. And that's when they get you...

  • Doh!!! (Score:1)

    by jo42 ( 227475 )

    Heard just before the explosion: "Ooops!!"

  • Found.

    .
    .
    .

    (For those that watch Fox News, I'm joking. This explosion isn't from the fabled WMDs.)
  • I was kinda hoping this would have come from the "Big-ba-da-boom" department.
  • I knew I shouldn't have eaten that jumbo bean burrito!

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