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Hubble Spots Source of Short Gamma Ray Burst

Posted by samzenpus on from the hulk-smash dept.

symbolset writes "Researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope have imaged some evidence that the merger of neutron stars is responsible for producing a short-duration gamma ray burst. On June 3rd the Swift gamma-ray burst (GRB) mission detected GRB 130603B, a burst lasting only one tenth of a second nearly 4 billion light-years away. Imaging with Hubble, they located a small red dot which, over the course of the following two weeks, dimmed."

28 comments

  1. Hawking Decay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    One possibility GRB source might be QBHs (small black holes created during the high pressure of gluon soup matter soon after the creation event). Most would have long decayed, but the estimate for their half life is usually massively underestimated because relativistic effects aren't considered. For some of these higher velocity boojums, the universe is probably not even a week old yet. They may be far more rare these days, but QBHs are going to be with us for a long time.

    Spectra doesn't seem to match in some cases, though, so there are probably multiple causes for the various GRB events.

    1. Re:Hawking Decay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is no practical method for these to form at relativistic speeds. They would need to be accelerated and doing so would violate C-P conservation.

    2. Re: Hawking Decay by tysonedwards · · Score: 1

      In this case, the likely cause is two colliding white dwarf stars.

      --
      Thirty four characters live here.
    3. Re:Hawking Decay by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      What "creation event"? That merger of the two neutron stars? Even that wouldn't have nearly the required amount of energy concentration to produce the small holes.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    4. Re:Hawking Decay by Teancum · · Score: 1

      He is talking about the Big Bang. AKA the "creation event" as defined by current scientific cosmology. You may think this kind of cosmology is just as silly as other kinds of cosmology, but that is personal opinion and belief.

      I would say that event has more than enough energy concentrated to produce small black holes. Likely a few rather large ones too.

    5. Re: Hawking Decay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which Day of the Creation Event would that have been?

  2. S0 by dean.collins · · Score: 1, Informative

    Btw for any geeks into solar weather......be sure to check out S0's daily 3 minute briefings on all things earth and solar weather related - http://www.youtube.com/user/Suspicious0bservers

    1. Re:S0 by Teancum · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sigh.

      While this guy seems to occasionally spot something not typically mentioned by science reporters, and especially seems to spot solar flare and other solar activity based upon his monitoring of various solar observatories over the internet about as good as any space weather forecaster, he has some really silly ideas about the causal relationships between solar storms and geological activity here on the Earth that goes into what could charitably called fringe science.

      If you really want to see some more reliable forecasts, I'd recommend instead the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

      Still, this YouTube channel is at least worth an occasional chuckle or two. You certainly shouldn't take it too seriously.

    2. Re:S0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think S0 has been pretty upfront about his accuracy on Solar causality to predict earthquakes and as he publishes online in advance/arrears its easy to see his record.

    3. Re:S0 by Teancum · · Score: 2

      Again, does he have any other substantial group in the scientific community that agrees with his theories?

      I sort of thought so. That is sort of the definition of fringe science. He may be correct (sometimes fringe researchers hit upon a good idea that takes time to become accepted into mainstream science), but by far it is more likely that he is a loose cannon and drifting off into spouting off pure nonsense. He also tends to spout off some fringe political ideas in his videos too, which is something that seems to be a reason to question his reliability.

      Like I said, use his information with a grain of salt. I did use one of his predictions to help see a real nice Aurora Borealis (aka Norther Lights). You can get a prediction for something like that from other sources, but he did seem to get the prediction a little bit earlier due to his watching sun spots like a hawk and suggested that such a solar flare might be coming.

  3. Old news, Even by Slashdot Standards by BaronAaron · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... happen almost 4 billion years ago.

    1. Re:Old news, Even by Slashdot Standards by Skapare · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Old. Be more interesting if it was newer ... like from yesterday.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    2. Re:Old news, Even by Slashdot Standards by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      Einstein would disagree with you.

    3. Re:Old news, Even by Slashdot Standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      More interesting, and also considerably more turn-the-Earth's-surface-into-a-fiery-uninhabitable-wasteland-ing.

    4. Re:Old news, Even by Slashdot Standards by wagnerrp · · Score: 1

      Even Einstein would agree that it at least happened months ago.

    5. Re:Old news, Even by Slashdot Standards by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      ... happen almost 4 billion years ago.

      Pity that there wasn't a gravitational microlens somewhere along the way. We'd have a nice ancient dupe. ;/

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    6. Re:Old news, Even by Slashdot Standards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends on which frame... for any frame roughly related to Earth's motion, it happened billions of years ago.

  4. Oh no by jovius · · Score: 1

    Millions of years of courting and burst at the first touch. We feel you GRB 130603B, hope you have a long life together.

    1. Re:Oh no by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      Told him he should have rubbed one out beforehand.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    2. Re:Oh no by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Safety nova?

  5. Small red dot... by flargleblarg · · Score: 2

    >Imaging with Hubble, they located a small red dot which, over the course of the following two weeks, dimmed.

    So that's why my cat has been frantically pawing at the sky for the last two weeks!

    1. Re:Small red dot... by war4peace · · Score: 1

      Your cat was almost two months late. June 3rd to July 20th.

      --
      ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  6. There goes the neighbourhood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Another perfectly good galaxy sterilized by those pesky neutron stars.

    1. Re:There goes the neighbourhood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Perhaps you could call them... neuteron stars?

  7. There... by Ed_1024 · · Score: 1

    ...goes Alderaan.

  8. Crank science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    There are more than 200 earthquakes per day that are large enough to be felt by humans.