Researchers Detect A Mysterious Flash Of X-Rays From A Faraway Galaxy (nytimes.com) 83
"It was a spark in the night. A flash of X-rays from a galaxy hovering nearly invisibly on the edge of infinity. Astronomers say they do not know what caused it." Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes the New York Times:
The orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, was in the midst of a 75-day survey of a patch of sky known as the Chandra Deep Field-South, when it recorded the burst from a formerly quiescent spot in the cosmos. For a few brief hours on Oct 1, 2014, the X-rays were a thousand times brighter than all the light from its home galaxy, a dwarf unremarkable speck almost 11 billion light years from here, in the constellation Fornax. Then whatever had gone bump in the night was over and the X-rays died.
The event as observed does not fit any known phenomena, according to Franz Bauer, an astronomer at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and lead author of a report to be published in Science.
He described some possible explanation in a blog post this week -- for example, a star being torn apart by a black hole, or the afterglow from a gamma ray burst seen sideways -- but the spectrum readings aren't a match, according to the Times. "None of the usual cosmic catastrophe suspects work."
The event as observed does not fit any known phenomena, according to Franz Bauer, an astronomer at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and lead author of a report to be published in Science.
He described some possible explanation in a blog post this week -- for example, a star being torn apart by a black hole, or the afterglow from a gamma ray burst seen sideways -- but the spectrum readings aren't a match, according to the Times. "None of the usual cosmic catastrophe suspects work."
Shepard! (Score:4, Insightful)
Clearly someone destroyed the Reapers.
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It was the sound of Trillions of Trillions of voices screaming out in agony, then suddenly silenced.
ZOMG (Score:5, Insightful)
Astronomical observations don't always need to be reported as "mysterious," tbh.
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> It is standard operating procedure to encourage continued funding.
Don't be saying that! Next thing you know, the conspiritards will say that climate change press releases are being hyped up in order to encourage funding!
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> It is standard operating procedure to encourage continued funding.
Don't be saying that! Next thing you know, the conspiritards will say that climate change press releases are being hyped up in order to encourage funding!
Those press releases are a red herring designed to generate controversy and thwart any organized initiative to fight global warming. The end game is to raise the temperature to a point that will make the planet more comfortable for our reptilians overlord.
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Astronomical observations don't always need to be reported as "mysterious," tbh.
Plus everyone on this website already knows what happened a long long time ago in a galaxy far away.
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Word. That's why I loved Rogue One and despised Star Wars VII.
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Not saying it was aliens. But it was aliens. It's always aliens.
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Astronomical observations don't always need to be reported as "mysterious," tbh.
No they don't, These x-ray sources were called Quasars and mysterious, now seen as the birth of a super massive black hole,
http://chandra.harvard.edu/xra... [harvard.edu]
Old news (Score:5, Funny)
This "mysterious" Flash form a faraway galaxy has been mentioned in print since the '30s.
Here's a youtube video [youtube.com] that gives a brief explanation.
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Excellent. I propose that you submit an application to slashdot to get the formal "Oblig." tag to that link whenever an astronomical (or other) article mentions a flash.
Seems obvious. (Score:2)
Clearly aliens have really bright flashes on their cameras. ;)
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"So what I did here Zorphax, is wire it up so all four sides of the flash cube would fire at once and then added an extra 9v battery on the side to give it a little extra push! Say Cheese"!
When did it happen? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:When did it happen? (Score:5, Funny)
if they told us when the event happened. 11 billion light years away didn't happen last nite.
Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.
I wonder how long it takes light to travel 11 billion light years. Maybe if someone could figure that out, we could tell when the event happened.
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Your point being?
The universe is expanding...Re:When did it happen? (Score:5, Interesting)
X-rays, of course, are a form of electromagnetic radiation (as is light), and travel at the speed of light
I wonder how long it takes light to travel 11 billion light years. Maybe if someone could figure that out, we could tell when the event happened.
An interesting thing to note is that the source wasn't 11 billion light years away when the light was emitted-- it was only 2.2 billion light years away back then. It took the light 11 billion years to travel that 2.2 billion light year distance at the speed of light.
Sounds paradoxical, doesn't it! That's the expansion of the universe in a nutshell.
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Also, given the gravitational masses and movement of galaxies and other matter in between, why is time expected to be functioning at the same rate across the distance those rays have traveled? In fact, couldn't time dilation present the appearance of an expanding universe, if only observed from one location?
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If the universe is expanding wouldn't the distance that the light has to travel also expand as well during the journey? So really the light would have traveled more then 2.2 billion light years distance?
Exactly. The two points were 2.2 billion light years apart when the light started travelling, but due to the fact that space was expanding as the light travelled, the distance travelled was 11 billion light years, not 2.2.
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So how far away is the source now? I'd guess a lot more than 11Gly.
GN-z11 is 32 billion light years away, but 13.4 billion years old as observed.
Re: The universe is expanding...Re:When did it hap (Score:1)
That would mean that the space between Galaxies was expanding faster than light wouldn't it? I remember reading that there was no reason it couldn't do, but wasn't aware of evidence that it could.
Nearly as fast, but not faster than light (Score:2)
That would mean that the space between Galaxies was expanding faster than light wouldn't it?
No, if the space between were actually expanding faster than light, the light would never get there-- it would lose ground. The space between the source and us is expanding almost, but not quite, as fast as the light is traveling through it, so the light does get here eventually.
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Except the universe is not expanding. For some reason, people seem to think that there is "one time" for the entire universe. As If the universe is 13.7 billion years old. Laughable on its face. It appears as if nobody has internalized the Theory of Relativity. There are "areas" of the universe where 13.7 billion years have not been "experienced" and there are areas of the universe where 13.7 trillion (yes, not billion) years have been "experienced".
Simple proof: GPS Satellites experience 42 microseconds (r
Time is relative (Score:2)
Different observers see time passing at different rates, of course, and thus the rate of expansion is indeed observer dependent. But all of the observers still see the universe expanding.
It's a trivially small effect, though, unless you're in a gravity well so deep you're poised on the edge of an event horizon, or moving at speeds that are a significant fraction of the speed of light.
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Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.
I wonder how long it takes light to travel 11 billion light years.
Hey Sherlock! Did you remember to account for the expansion of the universe since the event?
Didn't think so.
Sincerely, Mycroft.
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Hey Mycroft! So what you're trying to tell me us is that this light, that traveled 11 billion light years, didn't take 11 billion years to travel?
May I by any chance subscribe to your newsletter?
Didn't think so.
Sincerely, Sherlock.
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Nope, read the article again. You were making fun of Stan as if it was all so simple, but you got it wrong. His question was legitimate.
"11 billion light years away" is nowhere near the same as "11 billion years ago" due to cosmic expansion.
I think TFA got it wrong too. The galaxy is *not* 11Gly away.
Though I'm also tempted to make fun of Stan, given his terrible spelling and grammar, I know if I did I'd a mistake make too.
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The galaxy is *not* 11Gly away.
The question was about the when, not the where.
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11 billion light years away didn't happen last nite
No, it happened somewhere around 11 billion years ago
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Yeah. I'm wondering if I should jump in as Relativity Guy and start pointing out that this time stuff isn't fixed. Heck, from the point of view of the X-rays, they just left that galaxy, and referring to the time when the EM radiation gets here is very convenient in some respects.
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Science paper have this terrible habit of containing things called "details" which casual (or even professional) readers might care to know about the event or topic unde
The beserkers killed another star (Score:2)
At least they aren't getting any closer.
Re:The beserkers killed another star (Score:5, Funny)
The universe is still expanding. Maybe something hit a wall. A Huuuuuuuuge Wallllllll!
I'm sorry, I just could not help myself. Mod me down, I deserve it.
1 Oct 2014? That explains it. (Score:2)
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Slashdot is only two and a half light years behind.
News from 11 billion years ago (Score:1)
Slashdot is getting worse day after day
It's always the last place you look (Score:4, Funny)
A flash of X-rays from a galaxy hovering nearly invisibly on the edge of infinity
To paraphrase Crichton...
Life will, uh, find... a ray.
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So have they analysed the burst for data content? It could have been a civilization broadcasting all of their knowledge in one great encyclopedia.
Sadly, we weren't here to catch the public encryption key they published a billion years earlier.
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A billion years is a long time. 600 years ago there was no printing press. 20 years ago there was no Wikipedia. Who knows what will happen in 10, 50, 100 years.
A civilization that existed a billion years ago would very likely have mastered space travel by now. Maybe they're here with us to see that flash. Maybe we are them.
Light-year reporting. (Score:2)
You know, it's bad enough observing events that happened a few billion light years ago.
Did we really think the give-a-shit factor was going to somehow improve waiting over two years to report on it?
Fucking hell...
Fear not, It will all be over soon (Score:2)
The Shock burst preceding the event that sparked the Vacuum Decay [youtube.com] Wave.
Well.... it was nice knowing you all. Have fun in next Universe. Goodnight.
constellation Fornax? (Score:2)
Constellation Fornax? Edge of infnity? (And beyond!)
Did someone publish the script for another episode of Toy Story?
Obviously aliens (Score:1)
Once upon a time the human race used to reason along the following lines: "I don't understand, therefore it must be a god, the devil or evil spirits".
This explanation having gradually fallen into disrepute, now a large portion of the human race seems to reason: "I don't understand, therefore it must be aliens".
No doubt an explanation will be found one day.
great disturbance (Score:1)
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Too soon. ... You joke, but it may well have wiped out one or many advanced lifeforms.
Perhaps regular events like these sterilised planets and prevented complex live from developing for the first 10 billion years of so of the universe's history, and only now are a few of us getting lucky enough to make it this far.
maybe... (Score:2)
It must be... (Score:1)
Question... (Score:1)
If we are getting XRay frequencies, might this burst have started at a higher bandwidth - like Gamma?