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X-Ray Burst Temporarily Blinds NASA Satellite
RedEaredSlider writes with news that a recently-detected gamma-ray burst, originating roughly five billion light-years away, was powerful enough to temporarily blind NASA's Swift satellite. Phil Plait has an interesting writeup on the event. Quoting:
"Swift, normally easily able to handle the X-ray load from these explosions, was overwhelmed, and actually shut down temporarily when software detected that the cameras onboard might get damaged by the flood of light. That’s never happened before. The burst was so bright in X-rays it put other GRBs to shame: slamming Swift with 143,000 X-ray photons per second, it was 5 times brighter than the previous record holder, and nearly 200 times as bright as a typical GRB! Weirdly, it didn’t look out of the ordinary in visible light."
No, it's odd that the x-ray burst wasn't accompanied by other frequencies. But not that odd.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Last time I looked, "current" theory had GRBs coming from the poles, much like pulsars. This one just happened to be pointing (more or less) at us; we might not even be at the center of the beam.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
It is not unusual for gamma-ray bursts to have X-ray afterglows, but no optical afterglows. About 95% of gamma-ray bursts have X-ray afterglows, but only about 60% have optical or infrared afterglows. The reason is that if there is a clump of dust between us and the gamma-ray burst the X-rays will go through, but the optical light will be scattered and never reach us.
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
Do we know this wasn't somewhat directed?
We assume that they are very directed... rather than assuming that 3.6 e26 grams of matter/antimatter are being annihilated every second (from a quick application of E=mc^2).
From Wikipedia's entry on Gamma Ray Bursts [emphasis added]:
Most observed GRBs are believed to be a narrow beam of intense radiation released during a supernova event, as a rapidly rotating, high-mass star collapses to form a black hole.
The other probable cause of GRB's, the merger or two neutron stars, would also rotate rapidly as the stars moved in more closely (conservation of angular momentum: think of a figure skater pulling in her arms). In both cases there exists a well-defined plane of rotation and emissions expelled along the axes.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.