Slashdot Mirror
Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth
phenon writes "On December 27th scientists detected the largest cosmic blast to strike the Earth, actually altering the earths ionosphere briefly. MSNBC reports (along with Space.com), that this event happened from a magnetar 50,000 light years away from us, and if it had happened from a distance of 10 light years away, we would be talking about mass extinction here on earth. The cosmic ray blast was measured at 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power!"
Oh man, that was so funny because it's *true*. Kinda funny, kinda sad.
quite how I've dumped Slashdot editors and porn producers in the same barrel, I'll never know
Both produce a product that doesn't require much skill (filming sex or posting a URL to an article with a "witty" comment attached) and both leave you wanting something more substatial after viewing?
It seems that with every disaster that NASA or an astronomer discovers in the universe, the news always has to add, "If it were closer to Earth, we'd all be dead!"
Well, duh. I know that intergalactic disasters are a hard sell for primetime news, but is it really necessary to endanger Earth every f-ing time something in the universe blows up? As our ability to perceive and record these incidents gets better, it's going to get very tired, very fast. "Major sun flare on Alpha Centauri! If We Were Living on the Sun, We Would All Suffer First Degree Burns or More!"
Is it the news outlets adding the "If X was close to Earth we'd be dead" or is it the scientists seeking to justify their work? All this article writes is, "If the explosion had been within just 10 light-years, Earth could have suffered a mass extinction, it is said." Did the reporter's mom say that? Grr.
Would be interesting if editors got modded too, imagine an editor having such poor karma they couldn't accept an article!
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Actually there are a lot of things blowing up in the Universe that I doubt you've ever heard about. This one just happened to get more media attention for one reason or another. If the media publish something like this, they'll want to make it sound interesting for as many people as possible, even when it isn't.
I have a lot of sympathy for the astronomers being quoted. I've had enough experience dealing with journalists to know that it doesn't really matter what you say to them -- they'll often twist it whatever way is most useful to them for the story they want to write.
It looks like the news wire to me. Gaensler (who was quoted) clearly states that there aren't any stars like that within 10 light years, making it obvious that he was really just making a comparison to demonstrate how powerful it was, and that there's no actual danger. It's the journalist who made the decision to include the comment in the story, and at the very least I think it's to his credit that the entire quote was included in what appears to be a reasonable context.... unlike the slashdot summary for this story, which is pointlessly sensationalist by taking the first half of the quote without the last half.
The BBC story (linked from the slashdot dupe) is the worst rendition that I've seen, though. BBC published the quote at the end of the article, but copied the "10 light year" comment to the top in an unclear context, emphasising it and making it appear as if it actually was a danger. As far as I'm concerned, that's just irresponsible reporting. It's trying to make out that there's a potential disaster in the works when there clearly isn't one.