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Black Hole Birth Detected this Morning

Posted by timothy on from the look-out-for-space-placenta dept.

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."

3 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. Suprise Suprise by weavermatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So far these have been the least intelligent responses to scientific matter I believe I have ever see on slashdot. If this were anything related to YRO, linux or windows the people would be busting out certifications & degrees in bunches, but the recorded creation of a blackhole, all we get is poorly constructed sexual innuendo. Fantastic.

  2. Re:I've Wondered... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why is it that in the last 50 years or so seemingly 90% of people who don't understand jack shit about the world think they know better than the people who do?


    It has all the earmarks of "We don't understand this sh*t, so we think no one else does, so we think god did it". And the rest of the illiterate rabble thinks the same and says "Well that SOUNDS right, let's be skeptical about the very science that lets us use computers in the first place!"

  3. Drake's equation by Morgaine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So far these have been the least intelligent responses to scientific matter I believe I have ever see on slashdot.

    Yeah, kind of dire. :-) But then, it's Slashdot, and it does have its moments.

    Here's a slightly scientific thought for you though (but only slightly). What's the extinction radius of a 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watt event like this one?

    Because if the extinction radius is at all large, and if this happens at all frequently on a cosmological timescale, then it ought to be factored into Drake's equation.

    It could be the reason why the galaxy doesn't appear to be crammed full of high-tech intelligent life --- maybe random sectors of the galaxy everywhere get sterilized back to lifelessness by magnetar events often enough to keep the average density of life in the galaxy near zero, because life simply can't persist very long?

    --
    "The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra