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Black Hole Birth Detected this Morning
An anonymous reader writes "SPACE.com is reporting on the first optical afterglow ever detected from a short-duration (milliseconds) Gamma-Ray Burst. The GRB signals the birth of a black hole resulting from a merger between two neutron stars. Theory had predicted the whole thing, which was all spotted this morning by NASA's Swift satellite and ground-based observatories, thanks to an automated email system that notifies astronomers worldwide."
The Gamma ray burst was determined to emitted from a very large cigarette lighter igniting a very, very large cigarette. SETI recorded the first successfully detected extraterrestrial broadcast of a message, which they believe was "Was it good for you, too?" Bachelor and bachelorette scientists around the world are extremely puzzeled and have few clues as to what it all means.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It's unclear whether the newborn is a boy or a girl, but what is known is that it has no hair.
Dad's a little dazed...
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
They had to tune down their email spam filter to let that one through...
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
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What kind of gifts do you get for a super massive object? You don't want to make mom and dad angry, that is for sure.
Philosophy.
will require serious stitching or no star will want to merge with her again.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
The black hole was a noningth of an inch in length and weighed about the same as a large star.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
That's what I thought when I heard about Paula Abdul on Idol... this is how burned out old stars on earth behave, they attemt to merge with younger, brighter stars. A little titillation and BAM(!) their radiating again and the envy of all their neighboring dying stars.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I told Rosie O'Donnell not to eat that last HoHo... Looks what she's done now!
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Too bad the Cygnus wasn't there to watch!
Successfully condensing fact from the vapor of nuance since 1998.
It happened 2.2 billion years ago. Slashdot really needs to try and stay current.
Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he'll wipe out the species.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
I almost put up a big "Happy Birthday you Big Black Hole" banner at work as a joke, but luckily I found out beforehand that one of my co-workers has a birthday today. I am guessing that banner wouldn't have gone over too well with him.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Didn't you mean "theory had predicted the hole thing" ?
The burst has been named GRB050509b
I mean, really! How droll, how clever...
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
Mama neutron star will be telling the Black Hole how many hours she was in labor for the rest of her life...
Similar to the upcoming US election results
This is nothing new, God was just dividing by zero!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
must have been the microwave burritos
God put them on earth to test you.
Via evolution, of course.
sulli
RTFJ.
"You have liberated me from thought."
I must have Looney Tunes on the brain this morning, because my gray matter parsed this...
;-)
"...thanks to an automated email system that notifies astronomers worldwide..."
As this:
"...thanks to an automated anvil system that notifies astronomers worldwide."
I had this bizarre image of all different types and sizes of anvils, all with messages about the GRB attached, dropping onto (and through) desks and computers of astronomers all over the place while, in the background, Marvin the Martian is cackling about it in that lovably maniacal way that only Mel Blanc could give him.
Essence, I wish Chuck Jones was still around to exploit this one...
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
And so a star was born.
Er...wait...nevermind.
Warning: Could be fatal if taken seriously
Holly: As it transpired, there weren't any Black Holes.
Rimmer: But you saw them - you saw them on the monitor.
Holly: They weren't Black Holes.
Rimmer: What were they?
Holly: Grit. Five specks of grit on the scanner-scope. See, the thing about grit is, it's black, and the thing about scanner-scopes...
Rimmer: Oh, shut up.
I realize you're being droll, but it's obviously a signal to noise ratio issue. The gamma ray burst was a friggin huge signal against a (comparitively) quiet background. If Osama or your car keys were the loudest thing on the planet by an order of magnitude we'd have no trouble finding him/it. Alternatly if the US army started removing noise by killing every living creature they came across eventualy they'd be able to single out Osama's signal.
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