Earth May Have Been Hit By a Gamma-Ray Burst In 775 AD

Posted by samzenpus on Monday January 21, 2013 @08:39AM from the charlemagne-smash! dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "Studies of carbon-14 in Japanese trees and beryllium-10 in Antarctic ice indicate the Earth was hit by a big radiation blast in 775 AD. Although very rare, occurring only once every million years or so, the most likely culprit is a gamma-ray burst, a cosmic explosion accompanying the birth of a black hole. While a big solar flare is still in the running, a GRB from merging neutron stars produces the ratio of carbon and beryllium observed, and also can explain why no bright explosion was seen at the time, and no supernova remnant is seen now."

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Re:Umm? How far away would it have been? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-21 11:03 · Score: -1, Troll

Was it the the jug-eared nignog?
Re: Umm? How far away would it have been? by HornWumpus · 2013-01-21 13:30 · Score: -1, Troll

Fuck you carebear AC. Calling an idiot an idiot is the first step to that idiot learning something.
The GGGGGP is still an idiot. /. is not a middle school science tutoring site.
Alex shouldn't have bothered though. Let the idiot stew in his ignorance.
AC I bet you've got shelf full of participation trophies.

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John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'