Giant Explosion Observed

KFZ Versicherung writes "Space.com is reporting on the largest explosion ever seen in space. The outburst is orchestrated by a supermassive black hole that anchors a distant galaxy sitting amid a tight cluster of galaxies. The black hole has blown two huge bubbles into the galaxy, shoving aside a colossal amount of gas equal to the mass of a trillion Suns, or more than all the stars of our own Milky Way Galaxy."

Comments

checking

[Fr05t]

*runs out side*
*looks at the sky*
*runs back inside*
It's ok everyone, move along. Nothing to see here.

Correction?

[Tylerious]

"A light-year -- the distance light travels in one year -- is a measure of time, too, so the galaxy is more modern than many, seen as it existed well after the bulk of galaxy formation had taken place throughout the cosmos." That's dumbing down science. Just explain off spacetime by saying a lightyear is a measure of time. *watches the world slowly evolve into a slug*

Re:Correction?

[JohnFluxx]

It's a bit like the usual thing about we see the sun as it was 8 seconds ago, and that what it is 'now' we will see in 8 seconds time.

While sorta true, it's just wrong enough to be annoying. Spacetime isn't quite like that. It doesn't really make sense to talk about what the sun is like 'now', since 'now' is relative.

Feynman has a wonderful example to explain it.
Imagine you keep your head fixed, and you see an object in space. You then see it having a width (angle it substends) and depth (say amount your eyes have to focus or something). Because you have now got different units, you might think the width and depth to be totally different (analogous to space (meters) and time (seconds)).
But if you move your head, you suddenly realise width and depth are an aspect of the same thing.

It's the same for space and time.

In fact the famous E = mc^2 can be thought of mass being in the 'wrong' units, in the same way we got confused when measuring width and depth as an angle and a focus amount. If we measure mass in units of c, you get E = m.

Re:Correction?

[Loacher]

8 minutes ago

old news

[Fr05t]

"The eruption is 2.6 billion light-years away, compared to more than 12 billion light-years for the most distant known galaxies. A light-year -- the distance light travels in one year -- is a measure of time, too, so the galaxy is more modern than many, seen as it existed well after the bulk of galaxy formation had taken place throughout the cosmos."

This happened 2.6 BILLION years ago! Come on editors this is a *news* site and 2.6 Billion years old isn't new! Shesh :P

Re:Publicity stunt

[AtariAmarok]

""... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." (Someone had to say it.) "

As heard on the news:

Fox News: "Surgical strikes by our forces eliminated an Alderaan terrorist base today"

CNN: "Bush's environmental policies are believed to be to blame for today's planet explosion."

MTV News: "Christine Aguilera had to cancel her Alderaan concert tour today."

Rush Limbaugh: "That's a few billion fewer Anderaanian feminazis to worry about."

Boh and Tom: "ha ha ha. Heh heh heh. guffaw"

Largest eruption...

[Jarlsberg]

I got a pr email from NASA quoting this. The headline was something like this: LARGEST ERUPTION IN THE GALAXY. If the mail hadn't been from NASA, that would be an exceedingly naughty subject line, even for a spam message. :D

Re:But...

[myukew]

light travels much faster than sound
the boom arrives right after our sun died

Where are the pictures?

[TFGeditor]

"The scene was captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Large Array." So, where are the pictures? I like pictures. Science is no fun without pictures. Pictures are cool.

Jeez' Louise..

[kettlechips]

"The black hole has blown two huge bubbles into the galaxy, shoving aside a colossal amount of gas equal to the mass of a trillion Suns."

One can only conjecture as to the smell of that place.