Furthest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Observed 273
jd writes "The SWIFT team have announced the furthest-ever observed super-massive gamma-ray burst (from 13 billion light years away). The burst was observed on the 6th of September and lasted for 3 minutes - long enough for a number of other telescopes to home in on the gigantic explosion. The distance is only barely within the reaches of the observable universe. The idea of the SWIFT telescope and follow-up observations is that they will discover both the cause of the bursts and the consequences to the star."
A long time ago in a galaxy light years away.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A long time ago in a galaxy light years away... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:first post (Score:3, Funny)
Black holes are where God divides by 0. Gamma explosions are where God divides by 0.0000000000000000001 - God's accountant
Slashdot is late again (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A long time ago in a galaxy light years away... (Score:2, Funny)
Well, Cuba did offer to help, but....
Old news (Score:2, Funny)
If my physics class serves me correct, that makes this event happening around 13 billion years ago.
Which ends up around Sept6, 12999997995 BC.
Considering that light years = amount of distance light travels in one year, which is alot.
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Slashdot is late again (Score:2, Funny)
Re:first post (Score:3, Funny)
Re:An honest question... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:first post (Score:3, Funny)
Galactus said nothing.
This pissed off Q, who continued, "Hey big man. Feeling big and purple are we? What, want to eat a planet? That's nothing. I can eat a whole star!"
Galactus said nothing, again, but more loudly.
"Okay," said Q. "You have that ultimate nullifier thingee that makes you all so stuck up. Well, here, let me show you something!"
And then Q blew up the star as Galactus thought Troll and went looking for a planet to eat.
Everyone knows this is... (Score:3, Funny)
Stupid Sun (Score:3, Funny)
Sun's Bold New Ad Campaign!
Why post it twice? We already know they're trying to get our attention. Heck, they're even running ads on tv. Although now it makes sense now why Sun's Ad campaign was refused --
"This is a gamma ray burst! We can't air this! We'll kill all our viewers!"
Stupid McNealy. He'll kill us all.
SWIFT explained in song (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Slashdot is late again (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A long time ago in a galaxy light years away... (Score:3, Funny)
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (Score:2, Funny)
I was called to verify it.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:An honest question... (Score:2, Funny)
Do we report this, sir? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Mind Blow. (Score:5, Funny)
No, but I do wish I could moderate your post (Score:420, High As A F*cking Kite).
Re:A long time ago in a galaxy light years away... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:2, Funny)
"The scientist who spotted this phenomenon has developed strange mutations recently, and sold the movie rights to his story, on the condition that the movie suck as hard as possible."
Thanks for ruining it for me.
Re:NOVA ran a program on gamma ray bursts... (Score:4, Funny)
No, rest assured that you're not the only one. There's a majority of dumb and uneducated people who need to mock science they never understood (or learned), and generally try to drag everyone back into the muck of mediocrity.
I assume that belittling everyone else's achievement makes them feel better about being dumb failures themselves.
And the dumber and less educated they are, the less they actually understand from that science, the more rabid they'll be in attacking it. The farther someone will be to the left of that IQ or education Gauss curve, the more they'll rant and rave about how everyone to the right is a quack and a witch-doctor spouting nonsense.
Either way, rest assured that you're not alone. You fit in that dumb and uneducated majority perfectly.