Slashdot Mirror
Most Extreme Gamma-Ray Blast Yet Detected
Matt_dk sends in a quote from a story at NASA:
"The first gamma-ray burst to be seen in high-resolution from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one for the record books. The blast had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the highest-energy initial emissions ever seen. ... Gamma-ray bursts are the universe's most luminous explosions. Astronomers believe most occur when exotic massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As a star's core collapses into a black hole, jets of material — powered by processes not yet fully understood — blast outward at nearly the speed of light. The jets bore all the way through the collapsing star and continue into space, where they interact with gas previously shed by the star and generate bright afterglows that fade with time. ...Fermi team members calculated that the blast exceeded the power of approximately 9,000 ordinary supernovae, if the energy was emitted equally in all directions."
"Fermi team members calculated that the blast exceeded the power of approximately 9,000 ordinary supernovae, if the energy was emitted equally in all directions."
IT'S OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND~
No, just some swamp gas.
In an alternate galaxy long long ago...
Emperor palpatine went senile, and every time they fired the death star superlaser, insisted that darth vader pull his finger.
IT'S OVER 9000!!!
WHAT 9000?!?
Great shot, kid! That was one in a million!
Athy, athier, athiest.
Soooo should I put on the tin foil hat again?
"awesome!"
And the plural of axes is chainsaw.