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A Supernova In Red/Blue Plaid, Please

Snotnose writes "The New York Times is reporting that scientists have found a a supernova factory . From the article, scientists estimated that the cluster alone, which contains up to a million stars, probably produces a supernova once every two years. That is a rate 50 times higher than usual in entire galaxies. Stars explode in Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, only once in a century.. Sounds pretty awesome. "

172 comments

  1. As Howard Tayler would say by mateomiguel · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's alot of Blam

  2. Looks awesome by evil_roy · · Score: 0

    From a great distance. Dunno what it sounds like.

    Funny describing super-nova creation as awesome - that would seem to be the whole point.

  3. Arthur C. Clarke said: by chessnotation · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Most supernovae are industrial accidents."

    1. Re:Arthur C. Clarke said: by Skyshadow · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I knew we shouldn't have let George W Bush appoint the head of the interstellar OSHA....

      --
      Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
    2. Re:Arthur C. Clarke said: by GnarlyNome · · Score: 1

      I was thinking more along the lines of E.E. Smith Phd and his Kimball Kinneson Lensman series (now thats Space Opera)

      --
      Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
    3. Re:Arthur C. Clarke said: by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Most supernovae are industrial accidents.

      Perhaps they are the firey end of foolish civalizations winning the Ultimate Darwin Award by doing
      miniture black hole experiments.

  4. well,, now we know where not to look for life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and calpoly slo rules!

    1. Re:well,, now we know where not to look for life by SpaceCadetTrav · · Score: 1

      I have been to Cal Poly SLO. There is no life there.

    2. Re:well,, now we know where not to look for life by (54)T-Dub · · Score: 2, Funny

      there are plenty of cows

      --

      "I can not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presents danger, the solution is ignorance" - Isaac Asimov
  5. Old news... by Mondoz · · Score: 5, Funny
    The supernova factory is in merging galaxies, known as Arp 299, which is 140 million light-years from Earth.

    So this actually happened 140 million years ago...
    Slashdot is just now reporting on it? News from the 'mysterious future', indeed.

    --
    /sig
    1. Re:Old news... by fobbman · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not quite. This is actually a repost from about 83 million years ago.

    2. Re:Old news... by Islington_66_81 · · Score: 1

      Its kind of intresting to think that dependeing on the number of stars in the galaxy and this astounding rate of "Big Bada Boom" (super novae) that the entire galaxy could be gone by now. I mean since were looking at old light, about a 140 million years old according to Mondoz, the whole galaxy could be just one big cluster of black holes. In fact, it seems logical that the rate of decay in the stars in that galaxy should be increasing since the radiation from one star going super novae tends to speed up the decay of those around it. So if this is indeed true the rate of supernovae per year could actualy be getting much much faster very quickly. Or I could just be a total idiot doing nothing but wasting time at work.

    3. Re:Old news... by alkali · · Score: 4, Funny
      So this actually happened 140 million years ago...
      Slashdot is just now reporting on it?

      No, actually, it was reported then, too. I'm afraid this story is yet another duplicate.

      [ A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away ...

      -1.4E08 11:23:45 Holy crap! Our star is exploding! (articles,science) (rejected) ]

    4. Re:Old news... by Surazal · · Score: 1

      Your premise is not without merit, though your conclusion is a bit farfetched. :^)

      I think that there will probably be a peak in the number of supernovaes per year (if it already hasn't happened). Over time, though, what will happen is that galaxies will age, resulting in fewer, more longer-lived stars (and possibly black holes). In other words, give it several hundred billion years, and most of what's left of the universe will be populated by very small red dwarves and super-dense objects. A few trillion years further out, and these will start to die out too.

      What happens after that? I don't know. One possibility is that the electromagnetic force will bifurcate into two distinct forces, and the nature of the universe will change at very fundamental levels, causing any predictions about what will happen in the distant future to be completely off-mark.

      But then again, I could be rambling incoherently and am just killing time after work waiting for Adult Swim to start on Comedy Central tonight. :)

      --
      --- Journals are boring; Go to my web page instead
    5. Re:Old news... by Surazal · · Score: 1

      But then again, I could be rambling incoherently and am just killing time after work waiting for Adult Swim to start on Comedy Central tonight. :)

      Er, I meant "Cartoon Network". Silly brain farts.

      --
      --- Journals are boring; Go to my web page instead
  6. Big Bada... by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 3, Funny

    *Boom*

    --
    "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
    1. Re:Big Bada... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone who quotes dead milkmen in their sig is ok w/me.

    2. Re:Big Bada... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh... Dead milkmen... I was thinking of The 5th Element. ;-)

  7. Possible blackhole observatory by phaetonic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From what I remember in Astronomy class, the only known way blackholes are known to form are after a supernova explosion. This can make for an interesting study on blackholes.

    1. Re:Possible blackhole observatory by Mondoz · · Score: 5, Informative
      http://plabpc.csustan.edu/astro/stars/holes.htm

      This page explains the link between Black holes & Supernovas...

      When stars of very large mass explode in a supernova, they leave behind a core which is so massive (greater than about 3 solar masses) that it cannot be stabilized against gravitational collapse by an known means, not even neutron degeneracy. Such a core is detined to collapse indefinitely until it forms a black hole, and object so dense that nothing can escape its gravitational pull, ot even light.

      --
      /sig
    2. Re:Possible blackhole observatory by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think this is accurate.

      Certainly it is a reasonable hypothesis that a very massive star might create a black hole when it supernovas. I don't know what the latest computer models say about it, nor do I know how reliable those models are believed to be - this stuff is hard to model right.

      Merging neutron stars are also likely to form black holes, and a neutron start that was accreting mass from a companion star could also.

      Our best evidence for black holes is for supermassive ones at the centers of galaxies. These would be the result of a long period of growth by swallowing stars. We can't know now where the original 'seed' black hole came from, but the vast majority of its mass did not come from a supernova.

      (I have a PhD in astronomy, but haven't done any for 10 years.)

      This looks like a job for Stupendous Man.

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    3. Re:Possible blackhole observatory by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You know, it really doesn't make sense for that to be moderated higher than the post to which it was responding.

      --
      Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
    4. Re:Possible blackhole observatory by outsider007 · · Score: 1

      the only known way blackholes are known to form are after a supernova explosion
      actually, there's a black hole on uranus...
      HAHAHA

      --
      If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
  8. Breaking News by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    Breaking News:

    SCO has announced that is has claim to all IP related to supernovae. SCO claims it bought the rights to view and reproduce all supernovae images from NASA back in 1996. Another suit, targetted against the Catholic Church is insurance in case there really is a God that created the supernovae. If so, then God will be part of a future lawsuit.

    Being that NASA uses UNIX computers to do much of it's work, SCO is also including IBM, Novell, Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson as defendents in the filings.

    Further updates as we get them.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Breaking News by macshune · · Score: 1

      Update:

      Shitty Corporate whOre (SCO) has filed a pre-emptive lawsuit against the Supernova Factory named "Arp 299." The lawsuit states that Arp 299 illegally appropriated Unix source code, specifically the code for the Unix command, arp.

      Unfortunately, the court papers will be delivered and a reply received sometime in the next 280 Million years.

      The trial is expected to take 10+e95 years, unless Arp 299 doesn't respond by July 1st, 280,002,003 AD in which case the judge's Grandson+e32 will declare SCO winner by default. SCO's stock was up 10% to -53.43 in late-day trading.

    2. Re:Breaking News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats funny I tought SCO stood for Santa Cruz Organization, my bad.

    3. Re:Breaking News by introverted · · Score: 1
      SCO has announced that is has claim to all IP related to supernovae.

      In a related story, Amazon.Com has filed for a preliminary injunction, claiming SCO's IP claim infringes Amazon's own supernova patent.

    4. Re:Breaking News by sean23007 · · Score: 1

      This just in:

      SCO has announced that it has claim to all IP related to making jokes about SCO's ridiculous IP claims. SCO claims it owns these rights as it made all the ridiculous claims and did not give anyone else, including IBM and "grub", to include them in jokes. Expect foolhardy yet belligerent litigation.

      --

      Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
  9. Links to articles through google by dprice · · Score: 4, Informative

    For those of you who dislike the New York Times subscription requirement, here is a link to a google news search of related articles.

    1. Re:Links to articles through google by HorsePunchKid · · Score: 1

      Good call. That's much more useful than the links that people always post to circumvent the registration. I hope that catches on and replaces the other method. Spasibo bolshoye!

      --
      Steven N. Severinghaus
    2. Re:Links to articles through google by ncc74656 · · Score: 1
      For those of you who dislike the New York Times subscription requirement, here is a link to a google news search of related articles.

      Since it's the New York Times we're talking about, and given recent events regarding the veracity of their reporting, maybe Slashdot should precede links to the Times with a disclaimer similar to the following (shamelessly ripped from the Truth Detector's website):

      All facts and quotes appearing in the New York Times must be suspected of being made up, fabricated, altered or created entirely out of whole cloth.
      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
    3. Re:Links to articles through google by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      How about those of us who dislike the New York Times in general?

      I wonder if they have a sign out in front of their headquarters proclaiming that they've gone an entire three days so far without printing an outright lie...

    4. Re:Links to articles through google by jericho4.0 · · Score: 1

      Don't we _all_ dislike the NYT reg required thing?? It's not like the're usually the first/best source for the stories we get, anyway. /. should stop posting NYT articles, or work out an argreement like Google has with them.

      --
      "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
    5. Re:Links to articles through google by hesiod · · Score: 1

      > sign out in front of their headquarters proclaiming that they've gone an entire three days so far without printing an outright lie..

      Sort of like those "_#_ Days of Safety in Our Workplace!"

      They'd probably only need enough numbers for 1-10 or so.

  10. Future by Malicious · · Score: 1

    Perhaps in the Future, when all these stars have gone supernova, it will be refered to as "The Maw Cluster"

    --
    01101001001000000110000101101101001000000110001001 10000101110100011011010110000101101110
    1. Re:Future by hesiod · · Score: 1

      > Perhaps in the Future, when all these stars have gone supernova, it will be refered to as "The Maw Cluster"

      Why? I don't get it.

    2. Re:Future by Malicious · · Score: 1

      this is because you are a star trek nerd.

      --
      01101001001000000110000101101101001000000110001001 10000101110100011011010110000101101110
    3. Re:Future by hesiod · · Score: 1

      > this is because you are a star trek nerd.

      Ah, I feel some semblance of understanding now, must be a Star Trek reference... and your logic is a bit off. If I was a Star Trek nerd I would have known what it was.

    4. Re:Future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He has clearly made a StarWars reference, and you've managed to miss it twice.

  11. Caught a wisp of a thought by Phoenix666 · · Score: 1

    about a quip involving stellar flatulence and the consumption of inordinate quantities of n-dimensional beans, but it was too nebulous...

    --
    Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
    1. Re:Caught a wisp of a thought by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 1

      n-dimensional beans do that to me, too.

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
    2. Re:Caught a wisp of a thought by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      the consumption of inordinate quantities of n-dimensional beans

      So that's what causes nebulae!

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  12. Rob... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Slashdot's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
    The morning rain clouds up my window and I can't see at all
    And even if I could it'll all be gray but your picture on my wall
    It reminds me, that it's not so bad -- it's not so bad

    Dear Rob, I wrote but you still ain't callin
    I left my email, my ICQ, and my yahoo chat at the bottom
    I sent two emails back in autumn, you must not-a got 'em
    There probably was a problem with your sendmail or somethin
    Sometimes I scribble email addees too sloppy when I jot 'em
    but anyways; fsck it, what's been up? Man how's your boxes?
    My boxes is linux too, I'm bout to be a compiler
    once I learn gcc,
    I'ma go on and compile for hours
    I read about your Palm Pilot too I'm sorry
    I had a friend lose his Palm over at the airport in Maradonna
    I know you probably hear this everyday, but I'm your biggest fan
    I even read all your bullshit Linux news and Microsoft's man
    I got a room full of your posters and your pictures man
    I like the way you sold your ass out too, that shit was fat
    Anyways, I hope you get this man, hit me back,
    just to chat, truly yours, your biggest fan
    This is Stan

    Dear Rob, you still ain't called or wrote, I hope you have a chance
    I ain't mad - I just think it's FSCKED UP you don't answer fans
    If you didn't wanna talk to me outside your Linux World
    you didn't have to, but you coulda signed an autograph for Matthew
    That's my Senior sys admin he's only 26 years old
    We waited on a 9600 baud for you,
    four hours and you just said, "No."
    That's pretty shitty man - you're like his fsckin idol
    He wants to be just like you man, he likes you more than I do
    I ain't that mad though, I just don't like bein lied to
    Remember when we met in Boston - you said if I'd write you
    you would write back - see I'm just like you in a way
    I never had a clue about shit either
    I gcc'd shit with my wife then beat her
    I can relate to what you're saying in your page
    so when I feel like rmusering I read Slashdot to begin the rage
    cause I don't really got shit else so that shit helps when I'm depressed
    I even got a tattoo of slashdot across the chest
    Sometimes I even packet myself to see how much it floods
    It's like adrenaline, the DDoS is such a sudden rush of blood
    See everything you say is real, and I respect you cause you tell it
    My girlfriend's jealous cause I talk about you 24/7
    But she don't know you like I know you Rob, no one does
    She don't know what it was like for people like us growin up
    You gotta call me man, I'll be the biggest fan you'll ever lose
    Sincerely yours, Stan -- P.S.
    We should be together too

    Dear Mister-I'm-Too-Good-To-Waste-A-Packet-On-My-Fans,
    this'll be the last packet I ever send your ass
    It's been six months and still no word - I don't deserve it?
    I know you got my last two emails
    I wrote the @ signs on 'em perfect
    So this is my payload I'm sending you, I hope you hear it
    I'm on my modem now, I'm doing 9600 baud so fear it
    Hey Rob, I drank a fifth of vodka, you dare me to code?
    You know the song by Deep Purple or Slayer
    its irrelevant by playing on my linux player
    while I write some php scripts and play some Dragonslayer
    That's kinda how shit is, you coulda rescued me from drowning
    Now it's too late - I'm on a 1000 downloads now, I'm drowsy
    and all I wanted was a lousy letter or a call
    I hope you know I ripped +ALL+ of your pictures off the wall
    I love you Rob, we coulda been together, think about it
    You ruined it now, I hope you can't sleep and you dream about it
    And when you dream I hope you can't sleep and you SCREAM about it
    I hope your conscience EATS AT YOU and you can't BREATHE without me
    See Rob {*screaming*} Shut up bitch! I'm tryin to code
    Hey Rob, that's my senior admin screamin from the comode
    but I didn't cut the power off, I just rebooted, see I ain't like you
    cause if rm -rf'd we'd suffer more, and then the boxes

    1. Re:Rob... by xchino · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Better than your average troll.. and I hate eminem :)

      --
      Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
    2. Re:Rob... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is quality trolling

    3. Re:Rob... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > That is quality trolling

      Agreed!

  13. In space? by Achoi77 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Dunno what it sounds like.

    Nothing, unless that cluster is where the Star Wars galaxy is. Then it'll prolly sound like BOOOOM. :-)

    1. Re:In space? by istartedi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, when the gas goes by the pressure goes from zero to something less than zero. The supernova does indeed have a sound, and it probably is some kind of "boom" full of turbulent white noise. Of course, that sound never reaches us in any meaningful way, and if it did we'd probably all be dead.

      IIRC, one of the NASA probes once recorded the sound caused by interractions in the rarified gas associated with Jupiter's intense magnetic fields.

      So yes, there are indeed acoustic waves in space. It's just that they aren't like the atmospheric waves we are used to. That doesn't mean they aren't sound. You can't hear very well under water, but dolphins can. You wouldn't say that the ocean is silent just because humans have lousy hearing there. Likewise, we shouldn't say that space is silent just because the pressure is extremely low and we'd immediately die there.

      That said, given that space is almost a vacuum, you can't produce sound in the usual manner. You have to introduce a gas into space that allows sound to propogate, and a supernova does just that.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    2. Re:In space? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      though, there clearly would have to be sound resonating throughout the supernova itself.

    3. Re:In space? by mperrin · · Score: 4, Informative
      IAAA (I Am An Astrophysicist) and
      Actually, when the gas goes by the pressure goes from zero to something less than zero.

      is flat-out wrong. Negative pressures do show up in certain exotic bits of physics, yes, but the interstellar medium isn't one of them.

      It's only an approximation to say that the pressure in space is zero. Very, very low, sure, but pressure will be some small positive number anywhere there exists an appreciable amount of gas (which is pretty much everywhere, actually). The pressure in the local ISM is something like 10e-19 bars, give or take a bit. As far as human hearing goes, that's certainly low enough to be effectively zero, but pressure waves can and do still exist, at positive but low pressures, albeit at frequencies and volumes far far below anything we could detect by ear.

      In fact, it's very useful to think of the intersteller medium as a sort of atmosphere surrounding the galaxy, complete with high and low pressure zones resulting from differential heating, winds and superwinds blowing between those regions, "weather" of a sort along the boundaries between regions of different temperatures, and so on. For more detail (a *lot* more detail) check out Spitzer's Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium or Osterbrock's Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei, hopefully available at your local university library.

    4. Re:In space? by L7_ · · Score: 1

      read my comment above. It's not 'flat out wrong', although the english may be a bit awkward.

      IANAABIAAO (I Am Not An Astrophysicist, But I Am An Oceanographer)

    5. Re:In space? by eclectic4 · · Score: 1

      I can hear underwater, just not very well. Air carries the waves much better for us humans. In BOTH cases, though, a medium is definitely needed for us to "hear"/carry anything. In space, yes, empty space, I could crash two cymbals together two feet from your face (helmet, whatever, this is hypothetical) and you would NOT hear it. Plain and simple. You would see them crash and vibrate, but no sound at all. I know that you aren't implying that you could (I don't think so at least), but it seemed ambiguous, and wanted to clear it up.

      You seemed to mention that we couldn't hear in space and equated it with our supposed inability to not hear under water, which was entirely wrong to do. I can hear in water, just not very well. I will NEVER hear anything in space, because there is nothing there for my eardrums to pick up. Nothing at all. Two very different things going on here.

      --

      "The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
  14. This was at space.com by DJ+Rubbie · · Score: 4, Informative

    This was covered two days ago by space.com. They have pictures and good for people who didn't register on NYT.

    --
    Please direct all bug reports to /dev/null
    1. Re:This was at space.com by rulethirty · · Score: 1

      I'll take annoying popups over registering to read some article written by the NYTimes journalists... and that way i dont have to register and get SPAMed!

    2. Re:This was at space.com by snubber1 · · Score: 1
      rulethirty said:
      I'll take annoying popups over registering to read some article written by the NYTimes journalists... and that way i dont have to register and get SPAMed!
      Which should of read:

      My tinfoil hat is so large I can't see the screen well enough to register at NY-EVIL, however, it serves an added benifit of covering up popups at space.com

      (Karma's nuthin baby.)
      --
      I don't really mind double posts on //..
    3. Re:This was at space.com by escher · · Score: 1

      Or you could run Mozilla and not get pop-ups at all!

    4. Re:This was at space.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Opera, that delicious little thing.

  15. Re:NYT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    typical slashdotter, want his plagerism and fabrication for free!

  16. A Brief History of the World - now with comments! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The History of the World. (Score:1, Funny)
    by Anonymous Coward on 23:58 Saturday 24 May 2003 (#6032631)
    2.5 million B.C.: OOG the Open Source Caveman develops the axe and releases it under the GPL. The axe quickly gains popularity as a means of crushing moderators' heads.

    100,000 B.C.: Man domesticates the AIBO.

    10,000 B.C.: Civilization begins when early farmers first learn to cultivate hot grits.

    3000 B.C.: Sumerians develop a primitive cuneiform perl script.

    2920 B.C.: A legendary flood sweeps Slashdot, filling up a Borland / Inprise story with hundreds of offtopic posts.

    1750 B.C.: Hammurabi, a Mesopotamian king, codifies the first EULA.

    490 B.C.: Greek city-states unite to defeat the Persians. ESR triumphantly proclaims that the Greeks "get it".

    399 B.C.: Socrates is convicted of impiety. Despite the efforts of freesocrates.com, he is forced to kill himself by drinking hemlock.

    336 B.C.: Fat-Time Charlie becomes King of Macedonia and conquers Persia.

    4 B.C.: Following the Star (as in hot young actress) of Bethelem, wise men travel from far away to troll for baby Jesus.

    A.D. 476: The Roman Empire BSODs.

    A.D. 610: The Glorious MEEPT!! founds Islam after receiving a revelation from God. Following his disappearance from Slashdot in 632, a succession dispute results in the emergence of two troll factions: the Pythonni and the Perliites.

    A.D. 800: Charlemagne conquers nearly all of Germany, only to be acquired by andover.net.

    A.D. 874: Linus the Red discovers Iceland.

    A.D. 1000: The epic of the Beowulf Cluster is written down. It is the first English epic poem.

    A.D. 1095: Pope Bruce II calls for a crusade against the Turks when it is revealed they are violating the GPL. Later investigation reveals that Pope Bruce II had not yet contacted the Turks before calling for the crusade.

    A.D. 1215: Bowing to pressure to open-source the British government, King John signs the Magna Carta, limiting the British monarchy's power. ESR triumphantly proclaims that the British monarchy "gets it".

    A.D. 1348: The ILOVEYOU virus kills over half the population of Europe. (The other half was not using Outlook.)

    A.D. 1420: Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press. He is immediately sued by monks claiming that the technology will promote the copying of hand-transcribed books, thus violating the church's intellectual property.

    A.D. 1429: Natalie Portman of Arc gathers an army of Slashdot trolls to do battle with the moderators. She is eventually tried as a heretic and stoned (as in petrified).

    A.D. 1478: The Catholic Church partners with doubleclick.net to launch the Spanish Inquisition.

    A.D. 1492: Christopher Columbus arrives in what he believes to be "India", but which RMS informs him is actually "GNU/India".

    A.D. 1508-12: Michaelengelo attempts to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling with ASCII art, only to have his plan thwarted by the "Lameness Filter."

    A.D. 1517: Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to the church door and is promptly moderated down to (-1, Flamebait).

    A.D. 1553: "Bloody" Mary ascends the throne of England and begins an infamous crusade against Protestants. ESR eats his words. A.D. 1588: The "IF I EVER MEET YOU, I WILL KICK YOUR ASS" guy meets the Spanish Armada.

    A.D. 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu unites the feuding pancake-eating ninjas of Japan.

    A.D. 1611: Mattel adds Galileo Galilei to its CyberPatrol block list for proposing that the Earth revolves around the sun.

    A.D. 1688: In the so-called "Glorious Revolution", King James II is bloodlessly forced out of power and flees to France. ESR again triumphantly proclaims that the British monarchy "gets it".

    A.D. 1692: Anti-GIF hysteria in the New World comes to a head in the infamous "Salem GIF Trials", in which 20 alleged GIFs are burned at the stake. Later investigation reveals that mayn of the supposed GIFs were actually PNGs.

    A.D. 1769: James Watt pa

  17. I think this has changed... by mhore · · Score: 2, Informative

    the supermassive blackholes found near the centers of some (most?) galaxies are not (as far as we /know/) formed from a supernova explosion.

    If I recall correctly...

    --

    Mmmm......sacrelicious.

  18. Survey says by djupedal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Although two factories have been built, and ISO certified, they are still looking for a suitable shipping entity with hubs in all five local galaxies. The Domestic Project Manager, Color Supernova Commercial Division, Rich Fortuna, was quoted as saying "All it takes is one damaged-in-transit supernova and this entire circus is history."

    Previous attempts at supernova mass production have met with failed rollouts and buyer chagrin. It is hoped that when all seven of these new style star factories are online, 3 and 4 G supernova will be readily available throughout this part of the Universe.

    1. Re:Survey says by fobbman · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can't wait until they find out that, in Latin America, the "Super No Go" isn't going to sell any better than the normal "No Go".

  19. Re:First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not even close... better luck next time

  20. See what happens? by Lord+Grey · · Score: 5, Funny
    Step 1: Advanced aliens create gigantic computers that generate so much heat -- much like some Intel chips -- that they resemble stars.

    Step 2: One alien says, "Imaging a Beowulf cluster of these...."

    Step 3: BOOM!

    --
    // Beyond Here Lie Dragons
    1. Re:See what happens? by TrekkieGod · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hand over your /. membership card, pal...you forgot 2 steps

      Step 1: Advanced aliens create gigantic computers that generate so much heat -- much like some Intel chips -- that they resemble stars.

      Step 2:One alien says, "Imaging a Beowulf cluster of these...."

      Step 3: BOOM!

      Step 4: ???

      Step 5: Profit!

      --

      Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.

    2. Re:See what happens? by orkysoft · · Score: 1

      "If you do it just right, they won't know you've done anything at all."

      --

      I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
    3. Re:See what happens? by johnstown · · Score: 1

      And you left off the link to goatse.cx.

  21. 2003: wwworld bullows DOWn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    none too soon, to end this caper, eye gas.

  22. They never stop! by Suffering+Bastard · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The observations were made by the Very Long Baseline Array

    Sometimes also known as "my willy".

    Seriously, though, what keeps this stuff going? Are all the existing stars around the same age? They must be constantly regenerating to cause all these big booms.

    It would be cool if I could blow myself up, then have all my molecules whirl back together to regenerate me. That would be a trip.

    There's something fascinating about explosive gaseous objects (sometimes also known as "my grandpa").

    --
    "Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
    - Deep Thought
    1. Re:They never stop! by GigsVT · · Score: 1

      It would be cool if I could blow myself up, then have all my molecules whirl back together to regenerate me. That would be a trip.

      Just keep eating twinkies and sitting in front of a computer all day.

      If you can prevent Jerry Springer from cutting a hole in your house to tow you to his set, you will eventually have a gravity well large enough to accomplish your goal!

      Good Luck!

      --
      I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    2. Re:They never stop! by Suffering+Bastard · · Score: 1

      If you can prevent Jerry Springer from cutting a hole in your house to tow you to his set, you will eventually have a gravity well large enough to accomplish your goal!

      Oh yeah, then I'll be a big bloated sack of aaalllll man...

      I'm too sexy for my gravity well!

      --
      "Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff."
      - Deep Thought
  23. Oasis predicted it! by linuxbaby · · Score: 2, Funny

    I knew it! Those prophetic Gallagher brothers in Oasis predicted the whole thing!

    1. Re:Oasis predicted it! by Ryan+Amos · · Score: 1

      Being fucked up on coke and peyote != prophecy

  24. 140 Million year lag? by siskbc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, my bad, that's only for non-subscribers.

    --

    -Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat

  25. American Idol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too bad those "stars" don't explode. They would make a better sound blowing up than squawking as they do on t.v.

    Anonymous Coward

  26. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.. by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 1

    Anyone else think that this is Kip Durron running around with the Sun Crusher?

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  27. Yeah, but... by ianjk · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Does it run linux? ...huh?

  28. Voyager? by Spudley · · Score: 1

    Of course, Captain Janeway would tell you that these sorts of things are caused by wars in the Q Continuum...

    --
    (Spudley Strikes Again!)
  29. Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apparently the New York Times likes to plagarize... Bill Bryson's new book "A Short History of Nearly Everything" devotes a few pages in chapter 13 to Arp 299 and even calls it a "Supernova Factory." Interesting...

    1. Re:Old News by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 1
      Bill Bryson's new book "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

      Is that, perchance, your own referral number in the URL?

      I found a shorter on of http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-fo rm/103-5576298-7316661 going there directly.

      --
      "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
  30. Pictures by henrygb · · Score: 5, Informative

    Other sites have pictures as well as not needing registration.

  31. The Preview button is your friend by Lord+Grey · · Score: 1
    Imaging -> Imagine

    Slap slap slap

    --
    // Beyond Here Lie Dragons
  32. Anyone else... by huhmz · · Score: 1

    x...read Red/Blue Plaid as Red/Blue Pill?

    The Matrix definetly has me...

  33. Would be nice to get hexadecimal equivalents... by Thinkit3 · · Score: 1

    So that's then 32h times higher than usual. We geeks don't like decimal, right?

    --
    -Libertarian secular transhumanist
  34. Spaceballs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Obligatory quote:

    Barf: What the hell was that?
    Lone Starr: Spaceball 1.
    Barf: They've gone to plaid.

  35. Props to Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This was posted on /. about 12 mins. ago and Google already has it indexed and linked at the bottom of the search page from the link in the post I'm replying to - WOW!

    1. Re:Props to Google by caino59 · · Score: 1

      even more amazing (and funnier) is that the NYT's article is ommited from the displayed results.

      and further, that the link to the slashdot article rates higher..

  36. NASA responds by twitter · · Score: 1
    SCO claims it bought the rights to view and reproduce all supernovae images from NASA back in 1996.

    Sure, we licensed them to look at an image once.

    TNANR, Twitter is not a NASA rep. until NASA pays his retainer fee.

    --

    Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.

  37. Re:The World History reposted - with corrections!! by macshune · · Score: 1

    And without formatting!!! Way to go troll!!!

  38. Bugs by Stalke · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds like a alpha galaxy (1 crash/bang every 2 years). Our galaxy (the milky way) sounds like beta galaxy (1 crash/bang every 100 years). Hopefully there's a stable galaxy out there somewhere :)

    --
    -?-
  39. The Important Questions...narf by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 5, Funny
    The article fails to answer the important questions for us all.

    1. What is the yield of this process technology?
    2. Does this yield go up as the process matures?
    3. Does Moore's Law apply to supernova production?
    4. Can you get a refund/exchange on dud supernovas, or do they just provide firmware updates?
    5. Are supernovas legal for use in 4th of July celebrations in states that otherwise permit fireworks?
    6. Does the EPA regulate supernovas, or do they fall under BATF?
    7. Do you need a CCW permit to carry a concealed supernova?
    8. Are supernova futures traded on the NASDAQ yet?
    9. Have the Democrats figured out a way to tax supernovas (since they fall in the highest out-go bracket)?
    10. Have the Republicans managed to regulate what supernovas can do in the privacy of their own interstellar gas clouds?
    11. Can the RIAA/MPAA use the DMCA to sue supernovas suspected of being P2P traders?

    Yes, where are the real answers?

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
    1. Re:The Important Questions...narf by astroboscope · · Score: 1

      Hmmm...Pinky, your questions are so inane that one might almost think you were joking. Still, some deserve an answer.

      > 1. What is the yield of this process technology?

      Me. Seriously.

      > 2. Does this yield go up as the process matures?
      > 3. Does Moore's Law apply to supernova production?

      Aren't these practically the same question? The answer is no. Stars form when gas clouds collapse. Supernovae blow gas clouds apart - i.e. they tend to shut down star formation until the gas falls back. No star formation = no supernovae (at least of the type being discussed here).

      > 4. Can you get a refund/exchange on dud supernovas, or do they just provide firmware updates?

      Sort of. If they're duds they don't hamper star formation very much.

      > 5. Are supernovas legal for use in 4th of July celebrations in states that otherwise permit fireworks?

      IANAL, but as far as I know they are not yet explicitly forbidden.

      > 6. Does the EPA regulate supernovas, or do they fall under BATF?

      Typical American (arrog+ignor)ance! :-P

      > 7. Do you need a CCW permit to carry a concealed supernova?

      Have you got a way to block the neutrinos? Please share.

      > 8. Are supernova futures traded on the NASDAQ yet?

      Look it up yourself.

      > 9. Have the Democrats figured out a way to tax supernovas (since they fall in the highest out-go bracket)?

      It's called the carbon tax up here.

      > 10. Have the Republicans managed to regulate what supernovas can do in the privacy of their own interstellar gas clouds?

      Apparently not. Surprise surprise.

      > 11. Can the RIAA/MPAA use the DMCA to sue supernovas suspected of being P2P traders?

      Again, IANAL, but seeing as how supernovae freely share of themselves, and provide the heavy elements necessary for hard drives and P2P traders (otherwise known as humans), the answer is probably yes.

      --
      If we were ants living on a Rubik's cube, differential geometry would be a little more confusing.
    2. Re:The Important Questions...narf by sean23007 · · Score: 1

      12. What is the overclocking potential of these supernovas, and what method of cooling is preferred?

      --

      Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
  40. Re:NYT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's simple. Just replace the "www" in the url with "archive" and you'll never need to register. Of course, you'll have to find the article when you get there.

  41. Re:The Best SuperNova is at by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    In an infinite number of parallel universes, I'm sure I have done everything, even been President of the United States.

    However, I am sure in not a single one of them, have I done that.

  42. looks cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If only I could be arsed to register so I could read the bloody article.

  43. NOpe. by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 1

    Note: IANAC (I am not a cosmologist)
    Big assed star, runns out of hydrogen starts burning helium, gets bigger, runs out of helium, reuns through all the elements up to iron, iron fusion takes energy, dosent give it. Interior of star runs out of energey, heat/light pressure go away, nothing supporting mass against pull.
    Now, if the star is less than 3 times our suns size(i think) it kind bounces in, rebounds out in a supernova and leaves a white dwarf star behind.
    If it is great er than that, it doent rebound, it keeps going into a black hole.

    ALso, black holes may have been formed during the big bang.

    Im pretty sure theyll happen anywhere enough mass gets together. Thats why you should really clean out the garage.

    --
    All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
  44. Why this is important... by pq · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So I'm seeing lots of funny stuff, but no serious comments. Okay, we knew about supernovae, and we knew that where there is star formation, sooner or later there will be star death and supernovae as well. No freaking big deal, right?

    The surprise here is the rate of supernovae going off in that tiny volume. One cluster, one million stars, and a supernova every two years. In our galaxy, we're still waiting for one since the days of Galileo and Tycho, probably an average rate of one every century or so. And this is with Billions and Billions (TM) of stars in our galaxy!

    So that is a pretty big surprise. And it is a VLBA result: very cool. (The standard analogy for the VLBA resolution is the ability to pick out Roosevelt's eye on a dime held up in LA while you are standing in New York...)

    --
    "I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
    1. Re:Why this is important... by astroboscope · · Score: 1
      So that is a pretty big surprise.

      Well...we knew (in increasing order of controversy ;-) that

      • the star formation rate was higher in the past (the Butcher-Oemler effect)
      • galaxy mergers encourage star formation
      • galaxy mergers were more common in the past
      • the Arp atlas has a whack of ultraluminous, star forming, merging galaxies that are worth checking in on every now and then.
      But still, every 2 years is really exciting. We can literally watch a massive cluster of stars go boom in a human lifetime!
      --
      If we were ants living on a Rubik's cube, differential geometry would be a little more confusing.
    2. Re:Why this is important... by hesiod · · Score: 1

      > But still, every 2 years is really exciting. We can literally watch a massive cluster of stars go boom in a human lifetime!

      Sort of... One of the things that a lot of people don't remember (because I'm sure all of us know) is that the stuff we are seeing in that other galaxy is from millions (or more) of years ago (light takes time to travel, yadda yadda). So, is it possible that that many years ago that our own galaxy had a similar supernova rate? Or at least closer?

      Just a thought.

    3. Re:Why this is important... by shreak · · Score: 1

      " So I'm seeing lots of funny stuff, but no serious comments."

      Go to your user settings->preferences->comments and set moderation for "FUNNY" comments to be -4. That's what I do and Slashdot will seriousen-up pretty quick. I surf /. at 4+ (unless I'm moderating, then it's -1, ick ) and this cut the number of comments by 1/3.

      Sometimes I miss the funny comments, but I'm just to busy and something had to go.

      Later
      =Shreak

  45. Microsoft to pay $750 Million to AOL. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Microsoft and AOL just settled their browser legal battle. I'm sure this will be reported on Slashdot sometime around Sunday. Just giving a heads up

  46. Re:The World History reposted - with corrections!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bloody fool, you forgot to format it properly!

  47. and... by lpret · · Score: 1

    Step 4: Profit!!!

    --
    This is my digital signature. 10011011001
  48. Re:NYT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it's that easy, then what's the bloody point? You'd think they would put a little more effort into it if they wanted us to register at all.

  49. Re:NYT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's that easy. Besides, can you really trust what you read in the NYT?

  50. Unbelievably ignorant question... but... by MrIcee · · Score: 1
    I'm sure someone here will be happy to clear this up for me but...

    • Penetrating thick dust where two galaxies are colliding

    How do galaxies get to the point of collision? If the universe began with the big bang that would indicate material being thrown outwards from a source point in pretty much an even pattern. As they continue to go outwards the space between them would increase, not decrease. Now, I know the debate about "are we expanding forever or not" but can someone in a nut shell explain to me what would cause a galaxy to alter trajectory so much as to collide with another - especially after this much time from the big bang? Thanks.

    1. Re:Unbelievably ignorant question... but... by hak+hak · · Score: 1

      Locally, the expansion of the universe can be countered by gravity. Just like the stars in our galaxy are held together by gravity, galaxies form clusters in which the velocities are not what you would expect from the expansion of the universe alone. Our Milky Way, for example, is on a collision course with the Andromeda galaxy. The `collision' will happen in some hundreds of millions of years, IIRC. There will, however, be virtually no danger of colliding stars, although, judging from recent discoveries, we may experience severe amounts of supernovae...

    2. Re:Unbelievably ignorant question... but... by stwrtpj · · Score: 3, Informative
      How do galaxies get to the point of collision? If the universe began with the big bang that would indicate material being thrown outwards from a source point in pretty much an even pattern. As they continue to go outwards the space between them would increase, not decrease. Now, I know the debate about "are we expanding forever or not" but can someone in a nut shell explain to me what would cause a galaxy to alter trajectory so much as to collide with another - especially after this much time from the big bang? Thanks.

      The universe did not have a "source point" where all matter spewed from in the big bang. Instead, its space itself that expands and carries everything along with it in more or less an even pace.

      Use a balloon as an analogy. Take a balloon before blowing it up and use a felt-tip marker to put lots of dots on it. The dots represent galaxies and the balloon the fabric of space. Now blow up the balloon. All the dots recede from each other evenly, even though there is no source point. While you may think of the center of the balloon as a source point, it isn't really, because it exists outside the normal 2 dimensions of the surface of the balloon.

      Increase all the dimensions by 1 and you have the situation you do in the universe. Space itself is expanding. Thus since everything has not been thrown out from a source point, there is plenty of time for gravity to pull together galaxies over great distances. Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces but its effect stretches over the longest distance.

      Also, when galaxies collide, in most cases there is very little star-to-star collisions, since there is so much empty space between the individual stars. What happens is the interplay of gravity between the stars warps the overall structure of the galaxy, which can have the effect of either stripping it of starmaking material and thus lead to the slow death of the galaxy, or concentrating it and leading to bursts of stellar births (and deaths, if the generated stars are very high mass and burn throught their hydrogen quickly).

      Hope this helps a little.

      --
      Karma: Frotzed (mostly due to the Frobozz Magic Karma Company)
    3. Re:Unbelievably ignorant question... but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > The universe did not have a "source point" where all matter spewed from in the big bang.

      Ah, you were there.. tell us more - please.

  51. No Tourists by Michael_Burton · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sounds pretty awesome.

    I was going to say, "Sounds like a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." Then I realized that the frequent huge doses of ionizing radiation would probably wreak havoc on television reception and other things. So maybe it's not even a nice place to visit. And I'm just sure I couldn't live there for very long.

    --
    When all you have is an axe, everything looks like a grindstone.
  52. Re:A Brief History of the World - now with comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are truly a marvellous person. I salute you!

  53. One question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is the NYT the pot or the kettle?

  54. zerg by Lord+Omlette · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone remember that episode of Andromeda where some evil dictator acquires weapons of mass destruction that can take out entire stars? Maybe that's what's going on there, they're just testing & stuff...

    --
    [o]_O
  55. NYT....again? by MoFoQ · · Score: 1

    Hmmmm...is it only me who finds it a bit suspicious that it's the New York Times that's reporting this?

    The old axiom "fool me once, shame on you. fool me twice, shame on me" comes to mind.

  56. conway's game of life? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    does this remind anyone of conway's game of life? eg, how first they discovered "persistent" creatures, like:
    ***
    *
    *
    and then later discovered factories that produced such creatures? of course, that leads into "what about factories that produce these 'supernova factories'? where do they get their materials from? ...perhaps from the cast-off remains of exploded supernovae? if so, have we discovered a stellar ecosystem? no doubt others have considered this...


    ruriruri
    www.redsails.org

    1. Re:conway's game of life? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      thwarted by ecode formatting! remove one space from the third line for the correct creature.

    2. Re:conway's game of life? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting. Maybe if you look at it "at the right angle" (time span, distance, EM bandwidth, etc...) it appears life-like.

  57. NY Times Slashdot.com Universal Username/Password by ee_moss · · Score: 5, Informative

    NY Times access without having to register:

    Username: slashdot.com
    Password: slashdot.com


    Hopefully that will work for a whole mass of people logging in. Easy to remember. Take that, NYT >:) Pass it along.

  58. Plaid? by David+Leppik · · Score: 2, Informative
    A Supernova In Red/Blue Plaid, Please
    Did anyone else read this and immediately parse this as something out of Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky?

    The book describes a species of aliens who see in many more colors than we do. One color, commonly found in sunsets, is translated into English as "plaid."

    If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend it. It's arguably the best book by one of the brightest authors out there. He's the only author where I can't find anything to quibble about concerning his computer science. [Sample Chapter]

    1. Re:Plaid? by Goldfinger7400 · · Score: 1

      I read this and immediately thought of Spaceballs. Ludicrous speed! They've gone to plaid!

  59. I got sunburned by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

    Sounds pretty awesome

    Not if you happen to live there....

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    1. Re:I got sunburned by stwrtpj · · Score: 5, Funny
      Not if you happen to live there....

      I hear that using sunblock rated at least SPF 3.4e+25 helps with that.

      --
      Karma: Frotzed (mostly due to the Frobozz Magic Karma Company)
  60. Pressure less than zero ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder how you do that.

    1. Re:Pressure less than zero ? by L7_ · · Score: 1

      Its more "negative pressure", not really less than zero. When things explode they have a negative pressure (because they are expanding). When things are imploding, it means they have a positive pressure (i.e. there is pressure exerted on them).

      That's how I understand it, at least.

    2. Re:Pressure less than zero ? by istartedi · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sorry. I meant more than zero. I'm not sure how "less" got in there. I think that I was originally going to say "vacuum goes from perfect to less than perfect" but then I realized space wasn't a perfect vacuum, and changed to pressure from vacuum but didn't change the "less" to "more".

      Now I hope hope I make more silly mistakes like that.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  61. And most importantly: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Given this is an NYTimes story, how can we be sure that some big-name journalist didn't just rewrite the interview of a pulsar that was closer to the scene?

  62. Other reasons Arp 299 is interesting. . . by astrobabe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    First off the space.com story alternated between calling the galaxy Arp 229 and Arp 299 which totally confused my astronomer self.

    BUT. . .Arp 299 is one of the galaxies calssified as a starburst galaxy, meaning we see lots of star formation going on in Arp 299. People saw how much star formation with ISO and we'll be looking at it with SIRTF after we launch. It's thought that supernovae can trigger star formation by the shocks from the explosion disturbing the gas clouds and making them unstable. Of course the multiwavelength data is needed to test this theory and this radio data combined with the optical and infrared will be a good first start. . . .

  63. Suprnova by sik0fewl · · Score: 1

    Damn.. I was sure this article was going to tell where I can go for torrents now.

    --
    I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
  64. Not so much a factory as a power plant by yo303 · · Score: 1
    I think this is a large power plant run by advanced aliens.

    I've often thought the same thing explains the black holes in the middle of the galaxies. It's just a large furnace. All you have to do is give stars a nudge in the right direction, and eventually harness the X-rays and whatnot from the star being crushed as it falls in. There have, in the last few years, been more reports of regions in space where unusual things like this are happening: supernovae or black holes forming at vastly higher rates than normally seen.

    Over millions of years, advanced societies will need increasing amounts of energy. Black holes and supernovae are the only ways to supply that energy. They fly around, and gather all the unneeded stars, and coast them towards a fiery and energy-emitting death.

    Finishing off this thought, I figure the easiest way to push a star is to build a giant, Dyson-like sphere around it, and have a hole in one end where all the gases must escape.

    yo.

    1. Re:Not so much a factory as a power plant by onlyabill · · Score: 1

      If by 'gas' you mean solar wind, then yes but what a slow way to go. It would (should) be more efficient to collect all of the generated interstellar hydrogen and funnel it through a ram-scoop engine or an ion-drive engine, that you put in the hole...

      --
      I have to use this cause I can't afford a real sig...
  65. Re:A Brief History of the World - now with comment by Tackhead · · Score: 1, Troll
    > A.D. 1999: Miramax announces Don Knotts to play hacker Emmanuel Goldstein in upcoming movie "Takedown".

    A.D. 2001: War was beginning!

    P.S.: Best. Troll. Ever.

  66. Re:A Brief History of the World - now with comment by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

    "A.D. 1948: Slashdot runs the infamous headline "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN." Shamefaced, the site quickly retracts the story when numerous readers point out that it is not news for nerds, stuff that matters."

    You missed one

    A.D. 1949: CmdrTaco posts the article "TRUMAN DEFEATED BY DEWEY."

  67. Factory of what?!? by BitHerder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm probably picking nits here, but doesn't it sound odd to speak of a "supernova factory"? It makes as much sense as a moldy bread factory or a worn tire factory. A supernova is the death of a star after a long life, it makes no sense to suggest that this cluster is stamping 'em out. Better to say that at one time this was a star factory, producing shiny new stars which are/were dying at relatively the same time.

  68. Let me guess... by bethanie · · Score: 1

    It's right next door to Magrathea.

    ....Bethanie....

  69. Re:A Brief History of the World - now with comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive make your time.

  70. Some Perspective on Supernovae... by kevlar · · Score: 0


    There is roughly 1 Supernova occurring per second in the Universe. Thats one star pre second exploding somewhere. If our Galaxy has one Supernova per century, that means there's a whole butt load of Galaxies of stars.

  71. Supernova factory? by KurdtX · · Score: 1

    I think it's much more likely Star Wars VII: The Empire lays the Smack Down being made. I hear there's a super-duper star destroyer in that one, and it finally actually does destroy stars. The Empire seems pissed....

    --

    Kurdt
    I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.
  72. Indeed. by inertia187 · · Score: 1

    Stars explode in Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, only once in a century.

    I thought that was common knowledge.

    --
    A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
  73. Key event missing: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A.D. 1918: IN SOVIET RUSSIA, the Czar is ruled by YOU!

  74. A proposed mechanism by Capt'n+Hector · · Score: 1
    Galactic merging can be tied to an increase in the rate of supernova formation, not through actual mass accretion from stars between galaxies, as galaxies usually just past right through each other when they merge, but rather through gravitational interactions that somehow destabilize binary systems that would have previously not have resulted in a supernova.

    For instance, gravitational tides resulting from merging galaxies could change a distant circular orbit between two stars, one a white dwarf, the other a red giant, into an elliptical orbit, resulting in a higher rate of mass accretion from the red giant. By the way, mass accretion happens when a white dwarf steals mass from a nearby red giant. Once it reaches 1.4 solar masses, kaboom.

    Hence, if gravitational interactions between merging galaxies causes supernovae, then it promotes a clear case that we should find a high rate of supernova formation in older galaxies. This hasn't been definitively proven yet, but there is some strong evidence to support that. There also may be some other factors, such as the elements that dominate the galaxy, as well as its age.

    --
    Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
    Africus aut Europaeus?
  75. D'oh! by DrMorpheus · · Score: 2, Funny
    Now I hope hope I make more silly mistakes like that.
    You just did!
    --
    Debunking the "59 Deceits"
  76. Okay smart guys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is it that if the production rate of supernovae is one ever two years, that there aren't thousands or millions of supernovae in that cluster to be observed?

    1. Re:Okay smart guys by hesiod · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Why is it that if the production rate of supernovae is one ever two years, that there aren't thousands or millions of supernovae in that cluster to be observed?

      Ummm, IANAM(athemetician), but I would think that if something happens once every 500 days or so, and the supernova takes maybe a year (guess) to complete, that there would only 1-3 visible at any given (average) time.

      Unless, after a supernova happened, you would be able to "see it" for a thousand years.

      That brings up an interesting question that most people here probably know: How long does the whole process take? After it has collapsed and starts to explode, how long is it visible? And I don't mean "visible" in the night sky - I am talking about telescopes of course.

  77. Re:A Brief History of the World - now with comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bullsheet! The first 2 are wrong. We all know that

    4678 B.C.: Sco creates God.

    4677 B.C.: God creates the universe with all its content including humans and Linux.

  78. Re:A Brief History of the World - now with comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That can't be right. I didn't see no dupes.

  79. APOD by msheppard · · Score: 3, Informative

    As usual, the Astronomy Picture Of the Day has a very nice picture and explination of this.

    And as a bonus, today's APOD is one of the kewlest sunset pictures I've ever seen.

    M@

    --
    Krispy Cream is people
  80. Re:A Brief History of the World - now with comment by enkidu55 · · Score: 1

    Wow what a great troll. We need to get this troll to write a fucking trolling book so the lame ass trolls can get a clue and the real trolls can get paid :)

  81. Tartan not plaid by riptalon · · Score: 1

    Just to be anal because I feel like it today, a plaid is a sort of sash come toga wrapped around the upper body in traditional highland dress. It is a garment not a cloth pattern. The family of cloth patterns used by the highland clans is called tartan. To quote this page:

    Originally, the Scottish Tartan was a distinction of rank or position. It was not identified by weave but by the number of colours in the weave. If only one colour was used it depicted a servant, two, a farmer rank, three, an officer rank, five, a chieftain, six for a poet, and seven for a Chief. Eventually, clans or families adopted their own tartan, using a range of animal and earth colours which were frequently secret, only known to the weavers of the islands. They included yellows, blues, whites, greens, browns, reds, black and purple. Some say that a keen eye can identify the colour with a particular island, almost like a wine taster can identify the year and the vineyard.