Hubble Finds Unidentified Object In Space

Gizmodo is reporting that the Hubble space telescope has found a new unidentified object in the middle of nowhere. Some are even suggesting that this could be a new class of object. Of course, without actually understanding more about it, the speculation seems a bit wild. "The object also appeared out of nowhere. It just wasn't there before. In fact, they don't even know where it is exactly located because it didn't behave like anything they know. Apparently, it can't be closer than 130 light-years but it can be as far as 11 billion light-years away. It's not in any known galaxy either. And they have ruled out a supernova too. It's something that they have never encountered before. In other words: they don't have a single clue about where or what the heck this thing is."

Obligatory

That's no moon!

Hubble Windex: For that Deep [Space] Shine!

That's no moon!

Exactly! NASA obviously needs to do a better job of keeping the lense clean. :-P

Joking aside (at least I HOPE I'm joking!), I have to wonder if this wasn't a large matter/antimatter event. Given that the "object" was described as suddenly appearing, increasing in brightness, then falling off until it disappeared.

Current physics, to my understanding, postulate that the universe had to have consisted of 50/50 matter and antimatter at the beginning. One of the current puzzles the LHC is trying to solve is, what happened to all the antimatter?

Since this is open space, it stands to reason that clouds of matter and antimatter may still be floating around, undisturbed. If the two attracted each other over a cosmically long period, we may be seeing the resulting fireworks.

That's my best guess, anyway.

Re:Hubble Windex: For that Deep [Space] Shine!

Maybe it's another Alien civilization that just annihilated itself in nuclear\fusion\antimatter\something hellfire?

Re:Obligatory

This is what happens when God plays with lighters after eating mexican food.

That's no moon. It's a space station.

FTA-

"Apparently, a scientist at the LHC declared that the object is similar to the flash that an Imperial Star Destroyer does when reaching Warp 10.

Re:That's no moon. It's a space station.

...but can it do the Kessel run in 12 parsecs?

Re:That's no moon. It's a space station.

"They've gone plaid!" - Barf - Spaceballs

That's no Space Station, that's an LHC

a scientist at the LHC declared

LHC scientists then assured the public that it was not an LHC being used on a different planet by an alien civilization, then being burned in a fierce flash of particle fusion before being enveloped within a subsequent black hole. "The chances would be like winning the lottery ten times in a row" they said. "Not that we would know about any alien civilizations, their freaky purple skin and glowing eyes, or whether they were using an LHC modelled after the one we made on Earth. Speaking of which, I'm not really qualified to talk about it, because this is astronomy and has NOTHING to do with LHCs... Ha ha right? No more questions."

Next week, a new LHC song is promised from the CERN labs and should be another smash hit on Youtube. One of the scientists sung a few of the lines to us as a preview. "We didn't share our technology with a now-extinct alien race less than a few lightyears away. They were probably pretty dumb and annoying anyway. Let's turn this bugger on! Let's turn this bugger on! Smash some particles, yeah!"

I'm betting

... it's a Bowl of Petunias, or a sperm whale (again).

All thermal sensors are jammed.

One shows a million degrees. The others, minus five thousand.

Aliens must own stock too.

It's obvious that this was the flash of an extraterrestrial civilization that just destroyed itself when it realized that all of its savings were tied up in Lehman Brothers stock.

Re:Aliens must own stock too.

*Bursts out in sporadic laughter*

It's clear to me... I just know... I just know what it is!

*Sporadic laughter again*

This is direct evidence of Xenu's lost civilization.

Best regards,
Dr. T. Cruise

Ominous!

Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black body sphere and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back.

The 5th element

For those of you who have seen the movie the fifth element be scared, be very scared.

I know what it is...

...that dam' kid down the block with his laser pointer again!

Obvious answer

It's a gigantic sphere of single socks, nonworking ball point pens, car keys, reading glasses, coffee mugs....

Well, they have to go somewhere....

Probably.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it's a rock.

The Borg!

It's the Borg! I'm selling my Lehman stock now!

please stop with the inane star wars jokes

what is wrong with you people?

we all know deep in our hearts it is the decepticons

Modding system

I do wish the Funny mod wouldn't make so many posts appear so prominently on a thread. Maybe the first few 'funny' modded posts can appear, after than 'insightful,' 'informative' or 'interesting' get priority. I mean, I've read all the posts above and they're very funny (even the /. cliches), but it starts to get a bit old when you scroll all the way down a thread and can't find anything that adds a bit of information to the discussion.

I clicked on here hoping someone with an astrophysics or cosmology background might be able to have a stab and guessing what this thing might be, or have something interesting to say about Hubble.

Scooped!

I'm picturing a staff meeting at Engadget where the editor is yelling, "If Gizmodo beats us to press with a previously unknown class of celestial object one more time, heads are gonna roll around here!"

Loop

It's the Universe's backup of itself. It would store it offsite, but it's kinda hard when everywhere is here.

Re:In unrelated news...

Mike broke the Hubble! Mike broke the Hubble!

Re:they found God ?

When god is a bit more impressive than 21st magnitude, let me know.

Re:Logical conclusion

Well, it was observed with multiple telescopes, so it's not an artifact. The full paper can be found here: http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0809/0809.1648v1.pdf [arxiv.org]