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Furthest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Observed
jd writes "The SWIFT team have announced the furthest-ever observed super-massive gamma-ray burst (from 13 billion light years away). The burst was observed on the 6th of September and lasted for 3 minutes - long enough for a number of other telescopes to home in on the gigantic explosion. The distance is only barely within the reaches of the observable universe. The idea of the SWIFT telescope and follow-up observations is that they will discover both the cause of the bursts and the consequences to the star."
I feel a great disturbance in the Force (which we all know travels at the speed of light). As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
The force is strong in this one...
Maybe it was the universe's first post, or the explosion caused by the first moderators giving the first post first -1.
Black holes are where God divides by 0. Gamma explosions are where God divides by 0.0000000000000000001 - God's accountant
Table-ized A.I.
Wow, Slashdot really dropped the ball on this one, this news is 13 billion years old.
I'm agneglectic, too lazy to care if there is a God.
I feel a great disturbance in the Force (which we all know travels at the speed of light). As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
Well, Cuba did offer to help, but....
Table-ized A.I.
from 13 billion light years away
If my physics class serves me correct, that makes this event happening around 13 billion years ago.
Which ends up around Sept6, 12999997995 BC.
Considering that light years = amount of distance light travels in one year, which is alot.
In other news... HULK SMASH!
Naw...it's the first flame war!
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
Correct. For instance, the easiest way is to just cut the universe in half and count the rings.
Like Q said to Galactus, "I like your big funny hat, except for those weird horn things on the side."
Galactus said nothing.
This pissed off Q, who continued, "Hey big man. Feeling big and purple are we? What, want to eat a planet? That's nothing. I can eat a whole star!"
Galactus said nothing, again, but more loudly.
"Okay," said Q. "You have that ultimate nullifier thingee that makes you all so stuck up. Well, here, let me show you something!"
And then Q blew up the star as Galactus thought Troll and went looking for a planet to eat.
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
...just Sun's Bold New Ad Campaign.
Sun's Bold New Ad Campaign!
Why post it twice? We already know they're trying to get our attention. Heck, they're even running ads on tv. Although now it makes sense now why Sun's Ad campaign was refused --
"This is a gamma ray burst! We can't air this! We'll kill all our viewers!"
Stupid McNealy. He'll kill us all.
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
Here's SWIFT explained through a song by some astronomers who also sing a capella. Much more entertaining than RTFA.
"But I trust in the people's capacity for reflection, rage and rebellion." -Oscar Olivera
The history of Al Quaeda has been long indeed.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
Earthlings, say cheese! *Flash* Mr. Alien, your film developing estimated time: 26 billions years and 1 hour.
so I hopped outside and grabbed the old lookin lenses and saw it plain as day. It looked a lot like our sun .... ow my eyes hurt
There are three types of questions: The ones you ask your parents before moving from home, the kind you take to Google, and the kind you just look up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe
There has been an incident on Praxis. However, everything is under control, we have no need for assistance. Obey treaty stipulations and remain outside the Neutral Zone. This transmission ends now.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
No, but I do wish I could moderate your post (Score:420, High As A F*cking Kite).
I know /. is famous for old news--but come on, this is 13 Billion years old...
"Blah, blah, blah... Am I the only one that is sick and tired of hearing about the "age of the universe", "big bang", and "cosmic expansion"? Cosmology and Astronomy are so far from true science as to be almost laughable. I declare that there are x number of galaxies in the universe! Who is going to prove me wrong?"
No, rest assured that you're not the only one. There's a majority of dumb and uneducated people who need to mock science they never understood (or learned), and generally try to drag everyone back into the muck of mediocrity.
I assume that belittling everyone else's achievement makes them feel better about being dumb failures themselves.
And the dumber and less educated they are, the less they actually understand from that science, the more rabid they'll be in attacking it. The farther someone will be to the left of that IQ or education Gauss curve, the more they'll rant and rave about how everyone to the right is a quack and a witch-doctor spouting nonsense.
Either way, rest assured that you're not alone. You fit in that dumb and uneducated majority perfectly.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.