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'Starquake' Cracks Star

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the real-rock-and-roll dept.

geekroot's dad writes "Space.com is reporting that a huge 'starquake' releasing as much energy as our sun does in 250,000 years, has cracked a nearby neutron star. The magnetar produced the brightest explosion ever seen by man outside of the milky way. Although it is 50,000 light-years away, the blast was so huge it temporarily blinded some satellites and briefly altered Earth's upper atmosphere!"

10 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Starquake by Centurix · · Score: 1, Funny

    Awesome game, I vote best use of the ZX Spectrum colour palette ever (except maybe Dynamite Dan)

    --
    Task Mangler
  2. Re:Starquake? We need a more... extreme name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well the current trend is to add mega to everything, so describing something genuinely gigantic will be a problem. Super is so 90s.

    ultramega xtreme magnetar shearing?

  3. Re:Starquake? We need a more... extreme name by el_womble · · Score: 1, Funny

    Imagine if we could harness this energy, that would really piss off the oil companies.

    --
    Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
  4. It's the Libyans! Run for it, Marty! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 watts of power.

    Great Scott!!

  5. Sorry about it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    There was a small civilization in that neighbourhood trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. They wouldn't listen to reason, so we had to strike first. We are now occupying the remains of their worlds, and expect to restore democracy in a few billion years. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused nearby civilizations.

    Sincerely

    M' uldh pGar
    Chief of PR Intergalactic Council

  6. 50,000 years later, still no response from FEMA by afaiktoit · · Score: 1, Funny

    Spacehips laden with supplies for refugees on the launchpads.

  7. Re:trillion ... zillion by RevAaron · · Score: 3, Funny

    a googolplex is 10^googol (if you wrote this down in its expanded form, the paper would not fit into the volume of the solar system)

    What if you got one of those Japanese rice-writers to do the writing on paper? I mean, we're talking about a font size like 0.01 points. We should get someone on that.

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  8. Re:gamma ray bursts by Directrix1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man slashdot must be about a lightyear away from this server as this article is from February.

    --
    Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
  9. Re:Starquake? We need a more... extreme name by rev_sanchez · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think it is safe to say that the people in the space station now have super powers and at least one is now evil.

    --
    If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
  10. Re:Starquake? We need a more... extreme name by Dausha · · Score: 2, Funny

    ". . . at a distance 94 times that of the distance from the Sun to Earth."

    So . . . how far is that in AU?

    --
    What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.