ESA Discovers Unexpected 'Haze' of Microwave Transmissions 69
astroengine writes "The European space observatory Planck has discovered something peculiar about our galaxy: it's humming in microwaves and, for the moment, the source of the 'hard' radiation surrounding the galaxy's core is a complete mystery. Also, the Milky Way is home to previously unknown 'islands' of cold carbon monoxide gas, helping astronomers uncover the distribution of star-forming regions."
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
If I am not mistaken ... (Score:3, Funny)
... the answer is "42"
Re:Wifi (Score:4, Funny)
(In the cloud)
- Hi there, can I take your order please?
- I'd like a few billion humans. I'll take them medium-rare.
- Thank you sir. Your order will be ready in a few millenia, the time for the interstellar microwave to cook'em.
- Thanks! I'll be waiting outside.
(We're warming up !)
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Don't worry they're not screaming, that's just the air escaping as their atmosphere is boiled away.
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"But though you may find this slightly macabre...
We prefer your extinction
to the loss of our job"
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Yes, but what's the password to get access.... Nevermind, I just found it: "12345"
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That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
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That was the password to the Email account of the President of Syria and several of his staffers.
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I take it you have never seen Spaceballs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JNGI1dI-e8 [youtube.com]
It's all (Score:3, Funny)
Burnt Popcorn.
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Haze is not new (Score:5, Informative)
Nice to see some new results from Planck, but the summary is a misleading (and the article itself too, to a lesser degree) when it comes to the haze. This haze was discovered by Planck's predecessor, the WMAP satellite - in fact, it is best known as the WMAP haze. It is true that its cause is unknown, though. People like to speculate that it might be due to annihilation of dark matter particles or other exotic physics, which would be exciting, but I'm partial to something more mundane, like more frequent supernova explosions near the center, as mentioned in the article.
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Thats the first time I've seen supernova described as "mundane"!
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it's all mundane to the Q continuum.
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Re:Haze is not new (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, its a carbon "cloud" right?
Like the ones old cars make?
Maybe it's just exhaust of an intergalactic chevy camaro?
WEP (Score:2)
Anyone else first read that as WEP satellite?
"The Question" Answered. (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:"The Question" Answered. (Score:5, Funny)
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*golf clap*
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WORSE! Azathoth!!
Hendrix (Score:1)
Maybe we should ask Jimmy Jendrix if the haze is purple?
Jimmy Jendrix? (Score:2)
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He did manage to spell it right in the subject header...
CBR (Score:2)
How does this relate to cosmic background radiation?
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Cue the Electric Universe wackos (Score:1)
in 3... 2... 1...
Microwaves in space? (Score:4, Funny)
The haze is just... (Score:2)
"UV Haze in outer space /
aliens left it in this place /
their awful silent, we don't know why/
meanwhile SETI search the sky"
Apologies to Hendrix fans.
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Should that line have read "their awful silence" or "they're awful silent?"
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Or "they're awfully silent".
At the core (Score:4, Insightful)
Didn't Larry Niven explain the reason for hard radiation from the center of the galaxy in his 1966 travelogue "At the Core"?
Something more to worry about (Score:1)
Great.. so we have to worry about galactic global warming too?
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Actually, it's still quite cold. The 2.45 GHz wi-fi band corresponds to about 0.023665 Kelvin.
"Transmissions" ? (Score:2)
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Is it sharing of music and movies? Or just social communication of the collective?
Dark Matter is an odd duck. (Score:1)
Dark Energy and Matter are odd ducks.
In both classical and quantum physics matter radiates electromagnetic energy according to its absolute temperature. To NOT be visible, i.e., NOT radiate electromagnetic energy, Dark Matter MUST be at zero degrees Kelvin, which is impossible to reach because of Second and Third Law considerations. Also, if the Universe were made up of, as some have proposed, 90% of more of Dark Matter, the mean temperature of the Universe would be colder than 2.5 Kelvin. Black bod
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You are overlooking a tiny fact:
Dark Matter actual exists. It's been tested. Where as the either doesn't actually exist, because testing eliminated it.
The days of Dark Matter only being just an idea are over.
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In both classical and quantum physics matter radiates electromagnetic energy according to its absolute temperature.
That is untrue, some kinds of elementary particles don't interact electro-magneticaly at all Neutrinos for example interact only via gravitation and weak force. Dark matter could behave similary.
Also, if the Universe were made up of, as some have proposed, 90% of more of Dark Matter
Acording to current mainstream astrophysical theories, our universe is made up from 73% dark energy, 23% dark matter and 4% normal visible matter. The best candidate for dark energy is energy of vacuum, dark matter is actively being searched for in some deep underground particle detectors.
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I guess I'm not clear on the definition of dark matter. Aren't these clouds of cold CO, that have never been seen or expected before now, dark matter? There is nothing in the definition that requires that dark matter be something exotic, only that it be invisible up to now which describes these clouds.
Notice that I'm not suggesting that this accounts for all dark matter, or even a meaningful fraction of it, only that it fits the definition of dark matter by not having been observed before.
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I guess I'm not clear on the definition of dark matter.
We don't know what dark matter is, so there is no definition of it. Why do we think it's some exotic unknown matter and not some cold CO2 or just simple pieces of rocks invisible to us due to low temperature and long distance?
The answer lies in cosmic electro-magnetic background (CMB). By looking at the CMB we can tell the distribution and density of baryonic matter (matter made up from protons and neutrons) in the early universe (cca 300 thousands years after big bang). WMAP probe made detailed measurment
To Serve Man, 2nd Edition (Score:2)
CO is all over the place in space (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:CO is all over the place in space (Score:4, Funny)
As if space wasn't inhospitable enough, now we find out you'll get CO poisoning if you breathe out there.
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Galactic torrents (Score:3)
It was a mistake to tell the RIAA the microwaves are carrying pirated music. Now they're suing the galaxy to make them stop.
-- my IP address is ANDROMEDA, good luck, lawyers.
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