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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."

5 of 337 comments (clear)

  1. If you hear the bomb fall... by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I read somewhere about workers at an Army ammunition plant. A newbie came on, and was being shown around his area of responsibility, when there was a loud metallic CLANG, as some object in the warehouse full of high explosives dropped to the floor. The newbie instinctively dove to the ground has his compatriots chuckled. As he stood back up, they told him, "If you hear it hit the floor, it didn't explode."

    Looks like this one was a dud. Lucky much?

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  2. Re:Er... by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Wasn't there another slashdot article a few weeks ago about how blackholes don't exist? I think it was talking about this report.

    Let's rename them 'Schrödinger's holes' - They may or may not exist. Seems to fit in with a lot of the battling theories.

    Our astronomy club hosted a local speaker, studying the lives of black holes, where the entire cycle was explored. Pretty cool stuff. I'll try to remember his name and find a link.

    they should put these doctoral types on american gladiator and have them defend their theories!

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  3. Terminology, people! by WormholeFiend · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Shouldn't this be more appropriately described as a black hole being ripped, rather than being born?

  4. Gravity waves! by neonleonb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hopefully, a sensor was able to catch some gravity waves from this. This is the sort of event that should produce large, measurable gravity waves, so we may finally have evidence of their existence. I certainly hope so.

  5. Re:Detected how? by Hatta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Every other post seems to be a joke, so I'll just put this here. What's with the artist's rendition? The article said the event was photographed, why not use that image instead of some swirly colors that may or may not have any relation to reality?

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