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Powerful Blast Confuses Astronomers
eldavojohn writes "Astronomers are still speculating as to what could have caused an abnormally strong five millisecond burst to be detected six years ago when it completely saturated their recording equipment. From the article: 'The burst was so bright that at the time it was first recorded it was dismissed as man-made radio interference. It put out a huge amount of power (10exp33 Joules), equivalent to a large (2000MW) power station running for two billion billion years.'"
Did it come from Uranus?
God sneezed.
So, something happened 6 years ago, and nobody knew what it was.
They still don't.
Where's the fucking news?
"I got a half gallon of Jack, and 2 dozen Ant Traps. I'm about to get wild." -me
Praxis?
"Die, spammer, die!"
"Do not look in ass end of warp drive engine when it pulses."
Well, that's a very rough translation of part of the instruction manual. It is about as good as I can do with the limited concepts of mathematics and physics presently available on this rock.
This concludes our current injection of alien concepts into the Internet through the Slashdot interface. We now return you to your rockbound networks.
The Coming Of The Great White Handkerchief is at hand.
Deathstar I or II?
Yea, the colonel was drunk and forgot that the Deathstar's beam dissipates as the cube of the distance from the planet. Clearly out of range and making a fool of himself. Vader would not be pleased.
Is it some kind of astronomical object I haven't read about in my text books yet?
Aliens: "Nothing to see here. Move along."
Have gnu, will travel.
Hmmm.... yeah.... but what's that in Libraries of Congress??
I picked up the same thing on my instruments.. it was just a video clip of Hitler introducing the 1936 Olympics... that's all. Nothing to see here. Move along.
nonsig. unsig. desig.
The difference between capturing a bullet with a 24fps and capturing a bullet with a slow-mo camera is the slow-mo camera costs more to replace.
I, for one, am not made of money, and I'll stick to shooting at 24fps cameras.
How do you differentiate Beethoven's 5th from noise based on a 5 ms sample?
If it had been a 9 ms pulse, we'd certainly know which symphony it was.
They felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Glad you asked.
.
// E&OE
E = mc^2 ; so m = E/c^2
Plug in 10^33 for E, and 3x10^8 for c.
You get m = 11111111111111111 Kg.
Assume each book in LoC weighs on average 2Kg to simplify things.
At last count the LoC had about 20M books.
Dividing 11111111111111111 by (20,000,000 * 2), we get 277777777.
In other words, this was equivalent to 277 million libraries of Congress.
We don't have atheists like in your country... we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have this.
Hmmm.... yeah.... but what's that in Libraries of Congress??
This is how you get a job at Google: The Library of Congress has 30,000,000 books. Assume each book weighs 1 kg. Then the explosion's mass equivalent would be approximately equal to several billion Libraries of Congress. It's almost like that Oprah episode where everyone gets a car. Every human being on the planet gets a Library of Congress. YOU get a Library of Congress! YOU get a Library of Congress! EVERYONE GETS A LIBRARY OF CONGRESS!
Wow. I must have pissed off someone who got mod points recently. This the third straight post that got modded down. Looks like I've ascended to slashdot exalted status - I've got my own nameless stalker! Wee!
:)
Additional benefit of this post: someone will get to waste even more off-topic mod points.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
1,2 : large
3,4,5 : medium
6+ : small
It's the standard scientific ranking system.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Is that a label which cultists apply to those who refuse to join their cult?
Windows users.
But even with the eggplant, is hummus really capable of such a high energy output?
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
One, but it'll take 3 billion years.
...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
(I can't believe no one accurately posted that one yet)
Death Star. Luke Skywalker. You know, the movie. Long long ago in a galaxy far far away? 3 billion light years sounds about right!
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
"Tom, I can name that tune in <1 ms..."
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
FWIW I was camping out in the desert around the time this event occurred and didn't hear a thing, not one thing I tell you.
After the blast, astronomers from universities across the country were seen wandering dazedly through the halls and campus greens. The sky-gazers did not seem to know where they were, nor what they were doing there. Some astronomers were found in a parking lot below Mt. Palomar, with car keys in their hands, unable to locate their own vehicles. Some had to be given emergency oxygen because, not knowing their altitude, they had forgotten their oxygen masks.
Emergency psychiatrists were called in to deal with the situation.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Dr. Itznada Seegar of the Federal Emergency Psychiatric Adminstration. "These astronomers are, to put it in layman's terms, dazed and confused. You can use that movie reference, right?"
Dr. Adeep S. Komplacs posited a new cosmic psychic ray. Surrounded by clouds of THC byproducts, he remarked, "I've heard of cosmic rays, but this was one cosmic cosmic ray, dude!"
As things slowly return to normal, said one Astronomy Department head, "Thank God the effect is wearing off. Now we can get our astronomers' heads back in the clouds."
Towards the Singularity.
Having occasionally read the at -1, I'd have to say thank God for the mod system.
Fuck me; isn't there any way to filter out ALL comments modded "Funny"? Because they aren't "funny"; they're asinine, and indicative of people who DON'T understand the present subject, and can only grunt like pigs. This is interesting; so STOP with the "funny" comments already. Fuck, and I thought this was a forum for people with some intelligence and knowledge. I thought I was going somewhere interesting, and I wandered into a pig farm, and now I'm stinking and covered in shit and have gruntinnitus. Free clue: If you're intending to post something with the hope that it be modded "funny", then STOP NOW, because you're a sad 'tard that needs at least a damn good kicking, and possibly a bullet in the head - or to escape that, go out and get yourself a fucking girlfriend.
"Absorbing your worst..."