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The Andromeda Galaxy Just Had a Bright Gamma Ray Event

Posted by Unknown on from the alien-super-weapon dept.

First time accepted submitter SpaceMika (867804) writes "We just saw something bright in the Andromeda Galaxy, and we don't know what it was. A Gamma Ray Burst or an Ultraluminous X-Ray Object, either way it will be the closest of its type we've ever observed at just over 2 million light years away. It's the perfect distance: close enough to observe in unprecedented detail, and far enough to not kill us all."

129 comments

  1. far enough by zakeria · · Score: 4, Funny

    to not kill us 'ALL'

    1. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      technically a nearby gamma ray burst would fry just half the planet. with any luck it would be antarctica or somewhere similar.

    2. Re:far enough by popo · · Score: 2

      So I guess SETI won't be looking for life anywhere in the region then. Right? ... unless (as you said) it wouldn't necessarily kill us all.

      --
      ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
    3. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, a nearby one (some kiloparsecs) would drastically change the chemistry of our atmosphere (not to mention that it would "sanitize" half the planet).
      Ultimately, nothing would survive.
      It's a very rare event though.

    4. Re:far enough by Kinthelt · · Score: 5, Informative

      It would instantly fry half the planet. The rest of the planet gets to die slowly.

      --

      "Evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb." - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)

    5. Re:far enough by rossdee · · Score: 1, Insightful

      "technically a nearby gamma ray burst would fry just half the planet. with any luck it would be antarctica or somewhere similar."

      I think the andromeda galaxy is visible from more than just the polar regions, so it could fry whatever side of the planet is facing it at the time.

      Of course if the axis of the burst (the black hole that caused it) is not pointed exactly at us then it wouldn't be quite so dangerous.

      A really close GRB (in our galaxy) might only fry one side of the planet immediately, but it would still be bad news from people on the other side of the planet, as the ozone layer would probably be wiped out, there would be a lot of skin cancer and plant life would also have problems. Probably some climate issues in the long run

      and the psychic effect (cats and dogs, living together, mass hysteria...)

    6. Re:far enough by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      "technically a nearby gamma ray burst would fry just half the planet. with any luck it would be antarctica or somewhere similar."

      I think the andromeda galaxy is visible from more than just the polar regions, so it could fry whatever side of the planet is facing it at the time.

      The phrase "a nearby gamma ray burst" does not actually imply "the andromeda galaxy", even though this particular (non-)event originated in Andromeda (well, actually this non-event originated in a computer on Earth, since it appears to be a misinterpretation of data, not an actual event).

      Note also that "with any luck it would be antarctica" does not disagree with "it could fry whatever side of the planet is facing it at the time'....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    7. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably some climate issues in the long run

      Well that's okay, we can just raise taxes on the middle class to pay for the externalities. Fixed!

    8. Re:far enough by confused+one · · Score: 2

      technically a nearby gamma ray burst would fry just half the planet. with any luck it would be antarctica or somewhere similar.

      and therefor it would kill my family members in Australia and NZ. Thanks, you unbelievably insensitive idiot

    9. Re:far enough by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      Eh - still better. The northern hemisphere is far more populated and has much more land than the southern. All of North America, Europe, and Asia are in the Northern Hemisphere, as well as half of Africa, and a bit of South America. From a simple "number of lives" perspective it'd be better to hit the lower portion.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    10. Re: far enough by danlip · · Score: 1

      I hate to respond to a troll, but even if I shared your racism I would realize that the Middle East is not "half the planet" by a long shot, and anything that got the ME would also get Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia, i.e. most of the people on the planet. It's right in the middle of it, that's why it's called "middle" east. At the right angle it might miss one of those continents, but at least 2 out of 3 would be toast.

    11. Re:far enough by Pino+Grigio · · Score: 1

      Update: And it wasn't, but actually a known X-ray source getting caught by mistake. The story of what happened is still pretty neat. Scroll to the bottom for the rest of the "...nevermind."

      Move along. Nothing to see here.

    12. Re:far enough by Immerman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      On the other hand, a northern hemisphere blast would go a long way to solving the myriad population-related problems our species is facing, freeing the survivors to focus far more exclusively on dealing with the the aftermath of the GRB.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    13. Re:far enough by camperdave · · Score: 1

      But if all the Australian wildlife is destroyed, where are we going to get the kiwi birds to make shoe polish out of? I don't think the brown furry eggs they sell as fruit in the grocery stores will ever hatch.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    14. Re:far enough by Bengie · · Score: 2

      Well, less quickly anyway. From what I've read, a GRB would probably ionize the atmosphere, turning air into a poison to humans and many other creatures. If 50% of the atmosphere became poison, I'm sure it wouldn't take too long. The ozone would be gone. Probably kill the rest of humanity in the next 12 hours.

    15. Re: far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      It's not about racism, it's about region. That region is stricken with constant war, violence, tyranny, and sexism, a good deal of it all driven by religious fundamentalism. But if it makes you feel better, it might vaporize the oil too and 'murica would collapse as a result. That would be cause for celebration for half the readership here.

    16. Re: far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What survivors? When the previous world-wide civilization went under during the global calamity that triggered the deluge, there were at least people who attempted to rebuild civilization. Those ships of the then "White Men of the West" will not come sailing down the coast of the lands of the natives if something as instantly deadly as a GRB was to wipe out the Northern hemisphere.

    17. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      GRBs are emmitted in beams in opposing directions, so only stuff in the path of a beam in andromeda would fry.

    18. Re: far enough by Immerman · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Ah yes, because civilization is the sole providence of the white man - as proven by the fact that his superior weaponry allowed him to conquer the world. Because obviously military technology is the only valid measure of a civilization - and never mind the fact that European science has its roots firmly in the advances made by the Muslim world before its own collapse, who in turn drew heavily on the advances of African, Indian, and Chinese civilizations.

      And which world-wide civilization was that? And which deluge? Certainly not the flooding of the Mediterranean that was recorded in Sumerian legends and thence made it's way into Christian myths? Because while that may have destroyed one of the great empires of the day, the rest of the world didn't notice. And I assure you, while deluge myths are common among ancient coastal civilizations, they are markedly absent from most inland civilizations. Not to mention that, to the best of our knowledge, it's only in the last few centuries that global navigation has been possible on a large enough scale to create anything remotely resembling a world-wide civilization.

      Which of course brings us to the last point - even if our pasty skin magically confers upon us the blessings of the one true civilization, thanks to our inclination to conquest we're now pretty much everywhere - surely Australia could keep the torch of civilization burning, or do you suppose they've spent too much time in the sun and had their tans drive out their capacity for civilization?

      I do hope you're trolling, otherwise that's just embarrassing.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    19. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm curious if it did kill all (possible) life in Andromeda?

    20. Re:far enough by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      damn, I was hoping it would hit DC... and only DC

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    21. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Twice. Just to be sure.

    22. Re: far enough by amaurea · · Score: 1

      Certainly not the flooding of the Mediterranean that was recorded in Sumerian legends and thence made it's way into Christian myths?

      Isn't it unrealistic that the Zanclean flood, that ended the Mediterranean's latest dry phase 5.33 million years ago (that's about 2 million years before the evolution of Australopitthecus afarensis), should be recorded in Sumerian legends? Perhaps you're thinking of the Black Sea deluge, which might have occured somewhere between 7400 BD and 5600 BC (if it happened at all).

    23. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Provide proof or everyone will just rightly assume you are talking out of your ass.

    24. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong. Less than half of the humans on the planet would die and the rest would be fine. You read too much fiction, junior.

    25. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gas masks, you fucking idiot. We have technology to EASILY combat anything so paltry as a gamma ray.

    26. Re: far enough by chromeronin799 · · Score: 1

      But our planet also rotates like a chicken in a microwave. Depending on the width if the beam and how long the pulse, most of our little soap bubble wod probably fry.

    27. Re: far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate to respond to a troll, but even if I shared your racism I would realize that the Middle East is not "half the planet" by a long shot, and anything that got the ME would also get Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia, i.e. most of the people on the planet. It's right in the middle of it, that's why it's called "middle" east. At the right angle it might miss one of those continents, but at least 2 out of 3 would be toast.

      And this a problem because?

    28. Re:far enough by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      As an Aussie I vote for frying the Arctic.

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    29. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The plasma would cease to exist shortly after the energy keeping it ionized went away - if the burst were short it would only fry half the planet plus some along the horizon - there would be about 25%-33% that would be OK.

    30. Re:far enough by FreedomFirstThenPeac · · Score: 1, Troll

      More like Hemi-global Frying than Global Warming. Either way, I'm sure of three things. (1) It's Bush's fault. (2) The poor will be hurt the most. (3) Markets will open lower.

      --
      "There is no god but allah" - well, they got it half right.
    31. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Beg to differ. This would have to have been caused by ObamaCare. Without a fucking doubt. And the net result would be "skyrocketing insurance premiums."

      See: http://www.factcheck.org/2014/04/skyrocketing-premiums/.

      OK, PSA concluded. Resume silly astronomy jokes.

    32. Re:far enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never fear technoturd! You'll still be able to polish your granny boots because the kiwi bird is native to New Zealand not Australia!

    33. Re:far enough by george1101 · · Score: 1

      Human weaponry Zero. Alien Weaponry One. haha, we don't know do we?

  2. "Just had"? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Even for Slashdot 2 million years is a bit late.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    1. Re:"Just had"? by Chatsubo · · Score: 5, Funny

      The burst was created en route about 6000 years ago: So actually it never happened.

      (Please don't mod insightful)

      --
      > no, yes, maybe (tagging beta)
    2. Re:"Just had"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      2 million years late of what? how do you sinchronize your clock here and 2 million light years away to measure that time. Oh, wait...

      The moment you realize that when the light reach us is the same instant as when the light departed (considered it travelled in vacuum), you will start understanding relativity.

    3. Re:"Just had"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      The moment you realize that when the light reach us is the same instant as when the light departed (considered it travelled in vacuum), you will start understanding relativity.

      Lolwut? It's the same instant to the light but it's not the same instant to us. That is relativity. Failing to mention the behaviour relative to the observer, and talking about "the same instant" as an absolute concept, is when you start looking like you don't understand relativity.

    4. Re:"Just had"? by halfEvilTech · · Score: 1

      woosh

    5. Re:"Just had"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is great for the light, but most of us are not in a frame of reference moving at the speed of light, and in fact most of us are in essentially the same frame of reference as far as relevant when talking about just a significant figure or two of precision. A major point of relativity was to point out differences when you chose different frames, and that things like simultaneity are not invariant. You can't describe two events as simultaneous in any universal sense. But that doesn't stop you from still referring to something as simultaneous in a specific frame. Relativity doesn't throwout coordinate systems and coordinate time, just points out what the limits are and how to change those into different reference frames. You can try switching to an invariant quantity like proper time, but defining zero proper time as "the same instant" doesn't help address perceptions in a particular coordinate system.

    6. Re:"Just had"? by bhagwad · · Score: 2

      Tell that to the photons reaching us from the event for whom it literally just happened. There's no such thing as an absolute time scale. Thank you special theory of relativity!

    7. Re:"Just had"? by Rich0 · · Score: 1

      If anything could motivate me to meta-mod, this will... :)

    8. Re:"Just had"? by thunderclap · · Score: 1

      The burst was created en route about 6000 years ago: So actually it never happened.

      (Please don't mod insightful)

      Why not? That would be funny.

    9. Re:"Just had"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmmmm. Guess ***I*** don't understand relativity either.

      You seem to be saying "2 million light years" doesn't mean that it took two million years for the light from that event to get here?

      What does the term "speed of light" refer to then?

    10. Re:"Just had"? by tmjva · · Score: 1

      I too was fixated on the word "Just" regardless of how old.

      --
      Tracy Johnson
      Old fashioned text games hosted below:
      http://empire.openmpe.com/
      BT
  3. Wound in the Force by sinij · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."

    1. Re:Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Was it ever canonically established if the force is subject to the speed of light? Could we feel the voices crying out before seeing the event?

    2. Re:Wound in the Force by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      Was it ever canonically established if the force is subject to the speed of light? Could we feel the voices crying out before seeing the event?

      If it was no subject to the speed of light, and would be instantaneous, we would have felt it 2.2 Million years ago. If you want a great movie moment of having some "force-enabled" earthians feeling the disturbance right before the gamma ray reaches us, the information propagation speed in the force would be insignificantly smaller than that of light, as the event was (on the planetary scale) very far away.

    3. Re:Wound in the Force by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      OK, if you're going to nerd out on the force, you have to remember that Star Wars had faster than light travel.

      If ships can travel faster than light, why not "the force"? More specifically, if humans can do it, how could they do something the force couldn't? That would be impossible, since the force is everything.

      And, second, there are no "force-enabled" humans ... it's fiction. ;-)

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    4. Re:Wound in the Force by Russ1642 · · Score: 1

      How fast is a midichlorian particle?

    5. Re:Wound in the Force by Zocalo · · Score: 2

      I've heard that they are fast enough to make it seem like Greedo shot first.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    6. Re:Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How fast is a midichlorian particle?

      Point five parsecs faster than light speed, from what I've been told. Assuming your ships have gravity generators on board which are never mentioned, of course.

    7. Re:Wound in the Force by STRICQ · · Score: 1

      And, the Millenium Falcon was traveling faster than light when he felt the disturbance.

    8. Re:Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      About tree-fiddy.

    9. Re:Wound in the Force by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 1

      How fast is a midichlorian particle?

      They can do the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

    10. Re:Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can do the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

      The funny thing is that even though Han says this the Imperial fleet routinely sticks with the Millenium Falcon and keeps engaged in combat with it through all three movies, even though that statement implies the ship is supposed to be "fast".

    11. Re:Wound in the Force by Immerman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's been a long time since I watched the movies, but I believe that very line likely canonically establishes that the force travels far faster than light. If The Force propagated at lightspeed then, unless they were actually in the Alderaan system at the time of the destruction, it would be at least a few years before the disturbance could be sensed. Assuming Alderaan had even a moderate level of translight traffic news of it's destruction would have spread through the empire by word-of-mouth long before light from the event reached even the nearest neighboring star.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    12. Re:Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Ah, the Millenium Falcon... The spaceship that is so cool that it converts distance units to time units!

    13. Re:Wound in the Force by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Well, considering that Luke felt Han, Leia, and Chewbacca suffering on Bespin before it happened, I think it's safe to say that the Force is not limited by the speed of light.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    14. Re:Wound in the Force by camperdave · · Score: 1

      ... as the event was (on the planetary scale) very far away.

      Boo! What a perfect setup you had, and you blew it. What you should have said was:

      ... as the event was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away!

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    15. Re:Wound in the Force by GNious · · Score: 1

      Uhm - did the force/mitoclorians/whatever cause the Jedi to have insane reaction, or to instinctively predict events before they happened? If the latter, I'm thinking the force is able to time-travel ... speed-of-light then becomes irrelevant.

    16. Re:Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No! Stop saying that!

    17. Re:Wound in the Force by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      They can do the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

      The funny thing is that even though Han says this the Imperial fleet routinely sticks with the Millenium Falcon and keeps engaged in combat with it through all three movies, even though that statement implies the ship is supposed to be "fast".

      I think it's reasonable to believe that Han was just blustering and trying to get them on board. It was a reaction to Leia's dismayed "what a piece of junk!"
      It was a sell job.

    18. Re:Wound in the Force by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      They were on route to Alderaan at the time Obi-wan says that, and arrive a few minutes later to a debris field and a death star that could've been hanging around for hours to days, so it could easily have been slower than light.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    19. Re:Wound in the Force by Immerman · · Score: 1

      Hmm, so much for that idea. Unless...

      Do we have any idea how fast they were traveling?
      And are we talking theater minutes or movie-time minutes?

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    20. Re: Wound in the Force by chromeronin799 · · Score: 1

      Ben felt the disturbance while the falcon was in hyperspace, so the force effects are most likely superluminal and can be detected in the fabric of subspace the instant they occur. Also real time interplanetary communications have been seen many times in the movies.

    21. Re: Wound in the Force by chromeronin799 · · Score: 1

      I had a friend with a Falcon coupe who swore he could outrun the cops, the big pursuit cruisers mind you, not those small local cops. However once he didn't have enough juice to run the supercharger, he was still overtaken.

    22. Re:Wound in the Force by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      They travel at the speed of plot.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    23. Re:Wound in the Force by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      IIRC, during Episode 1 Qui-Gon said Anakin was effectively predicting the future a very short time to speed up his reflexes. He called it a Jedi trick, and used it to catch Jar-Jar's tongue. Assuming special relativity is true, then FTL can exist if and only if time travel can exist.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    24. Re:Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you stop and THINK about it, 12 parsecs is a distance, not a speed. Thus the statement makes no sense at all, but, it sounded all techno-nerd like at the time the movie was made.

    25. Re: Wound in the Force by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was far more lucky. Back in high school, I had a Falcon sedan. After a few hits on the bong you became invisible to the cops. My friends and I cruised the strip in perfect safety from the cops.

  4. False alarm -- just a normal background source by StupendousMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    The team which announced the event has now figured out that it wasn't interesting after all:

    TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR
    NUMBER: 16336
    SUBJECT: Swift trigger 600114 is not an outbursting X-ray source
    DATE: 14/05/28 07:57:12 GMT
    FROM: Kim Page at U.of Leicester

    K.L. Page, P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), D.N. Burrows (PSU), V. D'Elia (ASDC) and A. Maselli (INAF-IASFPA) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

    We have re-analysed the prompt XRT data on Swift trigger 600114 (GCN Circ. 16332), taking advantage of the event data.

    The initial count rate given in GCN Circ. 16332 was based on raw data from the full field of view, without X-ray event detection, and therefore may have been affected by other sources in M31, as well as background hot pixels. Analysis of the event data (not fully available at the time of the initial circular) shows the count rate of the X-ray source identified in GCN Circ. 16332 to have been 0.065 +/- 0.012 count s^-1, consistent with the previous observations of this source [see the 1SXPS catalogue (Evans et al. 2014): http://www.swift.ac.uk/1SXPS/1....

    We therefore do not believe this source to be in outburst. Instead, it was a serendipitous constant source in the field of view of a BAT subthreshold trigger.

    This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.

    Better luck next time.

    --
    Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
    mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu
    1. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by StupendousMan · · Score: 4, Informative

      And here's a very nice, easy-to-understand explanation of what happened, written by one of the SWIFT astronomers:

      http://www.star.le.ac.uk/~pae9...

      --
      Michael Richmond "This is the heart that broke my finger."
      mwrsps@rit.edu http://stupendous.rit.edu
    2. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by rudy_wayne · · Score: 2

      So this is just like all the other stories on Slasdot -- nothing actually happened.

    3. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1

      The information and the explanation is great in that link. But why that hideous background and formatting reminiscent of geo cities? All it lacks is the blinking font.

      --
      sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    4. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by rudy_wayne · · Score: 3, Funny

      All it lacks is the blinking font.

      It's there. But newer browsers ignore the blink tag.

    5. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By Slashdot standards, reporting on nothing that happened a few hours ago is an improvement upon reporting something that happened 2.2 million years ago.

    6. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by Torgo's+Pizza · · Score: 1

      "While this is disappointing news, the possibility of observing such events in the future still hold great promise for new scientific research here on Earth," stated Dr. Bruce Banner, a leading scientist in gamma-ray research.

    7. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The GRB might not harm us but this article calling it a "perfect distance" is a fallacy. If in our own lifetime we were this close to a GRB (Andromeda is practically next door by cosmological standards), the distribution model likely indicates a high probability of one occurring in our own galaxy at some point in some in the not to distant future.(relatively speaking -- it could be thousands of years in the future). If hit with a GRB from close range, the effects could range anywhere from a dose of heavy radiation, to complete erasure of all life.

      In short, add one more potential Armageddon issue we need to protect humanity from.

      And GRB aren't an easy Armageddon to protect from. The level of potential destruction makes risks from asteroid hits, climate change and nuclear war look like a Tupperware party. The only sure defence against a GRB is interstellar colonies -- and we are still far away from that

    8. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The information and the explanation is great in that link. But why that hideous background and formatting reminiscent of geo cities? All it lacks is the blinking font.

      I want a "true dat" moderation option.

    9. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm ready for the next Gamma Ray Burst!
      Connected a fat cable from all the tin-foil lining walls and ceiling to something that was totally useless to channel energy to a ground.
      The ground wire is connected to a Frankenstein-Win8 machine then to ground rod.
      Maybe a good zap will turn Win8 into something useful.

    10. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by SternisheFan · · Score: 1
      From your link...

      So, what, finally, happened? The final chronology is this: BAT triggered on a low-siginifance event near M31. These are probably spurious but occasionally real. Swift spun round to point at the location BAT identified, and found a known X-ray source. Due to problems with the normal data products, only low-quality data were available. These data suggested that the X-ray object was much brighter than normal: an outbursting source. I managed to analyse the problematic data, and found that the source was not in outburst. This was announced. The full dataset became available and confirmed that the X-ray object is not in outburst.

    11. Re:False alarm -- just a normal background source by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The dupe will be along in another million years or so.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  5. No, it's a ULX by buchner.johannes · · Score: 3, Informative

    http://www.star.le.ac.uk/~pae9...

    --
    NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
  6. Uh oh by eclectro · · Score: 1

    Really bad news for those aliens trying to contact us from there. Oh well.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
    1. Re: Uh oh by cjjjer · · Score: 1

      Unless it was some kind of alien weapon of mass destruction and they are performing a mass genocide. I can't help think that if we are not the only life form in the universe some would be just as or more perverse than we are and have been in our history.

  7. False alarm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just North Korea doing another nuclear test.

  8. Relativity by philip.paradis · · Score: 1

    Everything is relative, of course, but I'm not sure I would have run with the headline "The Andromeda Galaxy Just Had a Bright Gamma Ray Event" when the event occurred over two million years ago.

    --
    Write failed: Broken pipe
    1. Re:Relativity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I propose slashdot should post a gamma ray story every day. Then, in two million years we can determine which story was right.

      Imagine the aliens monitoring our planet: they would think we are crazy.

    2. Re:Relativity by invid · · Score: 2

      Like you said, "everything is relative". For astronomers, two million years is a pretty short time. Unless you're waiting in the coffee line.

      --
      The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
    3. Re:Relativity by philip.paradis · · Score: 1

      Proper astronomers, like proper programmers, have their own coffee pots. This is doubly true for astronomers who happen to be programmers. What's a coffee line?

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    4. Re:Relativity by Russ1642 · · Score: 1

      It's just as 'right' to think of events as happening at the same time when you don't correct for speed of light time between them.

    5. Re:Relativity by philip.paradis · · Score: 1

      If we're going to head down that road, we might as go ahead and note that time as humans perceive it is a purely fictitious construct based on limited perception (dimensional constraints). However, that's not a terribly good foundation for justifying failure to simply state things in terms that apply to our particular experience as a species.

      --
      Write failed: Broken pipe
    6. Re:Relativity by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Proper astronomers, like proper programmers, have their own coffee pots. This is doubly true for astronomers who happen to be programmers. What's a coffee line?

      A coffee line is an unbroken succession of heredity in coffee plants. Did you think it was merely a coincidence that the Arecibo observatory was placed in the coffee growing region of Puerto Rico?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    7. Re:Relativity by gstoddart · · Score: 1

      Well, because "Two million years ago something happened in the Andromeda galaxy, and we're only just finding out about it now" is a lame headline.

      And in our frame of reference, it just happened. Or, apparently would have happened if it had actually happened, it just so happens that it didn't actually happen. Though, in the future something might happen. But nothing happened today in Andromeda. Even the thing which didn't happen. Because it would have happened a long time ago if it had happened. And if it happened today, we won't know about it for a very long time. When that happens, we'll know it happened, but we'll be debating if it just happened or if it happened already.

      And that is why we use the present tense. ;-)

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    8. Re:Relativity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And in our frame of reference, it just happened.

      In our frame of reference, i.e. coordinate time, it happened 2 million years ago. You could say the emission and observation of the light happened at the same proper time, but that is not specific to our frame of reference and not particularly fitting to the idea of simultaneity within a specified frame.

    9. Re:Relativity by philip.paradis · · Score: 1

      I cannot deny this truth. Sir, you are a champion.

      --
      Write failed: Broken pipe
  9. Define "us" by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 2

    Self centered earthlings disgust me!! Who's to say this gamma ray burst didn't kill millions of inhabitants of some distant planet?

    1. Re:Define "us" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Name one.

    2. Re:Define "us" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who's to say this gamma ray burst didn't kill millions of inhabitants of some distant planet?

      the person/people that said this actually didn't happen and was a false alarm ... I suppose those would be the people who would say.

    3. Re:Define "us" by Jack+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Not just one planet. This type of event has the potential to wipe the life off lots of planets in one go.

  10. Woops! Nevermind. by mbone · · Score: 4, Informative

    This has been withdrawn. From

    http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/gcn/g...

    We therefore do not believe this source to be in outburst. Instead, it was
    a serendipitous constant source in the field of view of a BAT subthreshold
    trigger.

    This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.

  11. Oh crap it's Galactus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please don't eat our planet!

  12. False Alarm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    False Alarm:

    Update (5/28/14 9:20 am EDT): This lalert may have been a false alarm. Further analysis showed the initial brightness was overestimated by a factor of 300. An official circular from the Swift-XRT team says Ãoetherefore do not believe this source to be in outburst. Instead, it was a serendipitous constant source in the field of view of a BAT subthreshold trigger.Ã WeÃ(TM)ll provide more details soon.

    Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/112194/possible-gamma-ray-burst-detected-in-andromeda-would-be-closest-ever-observed/#ixzz3315sBQ3P

  13. Jesus is coming by js3 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The event" means Jesus is on his way. Go to church people

    --
    did you forget to take your meds?
    1. Re:Jesus is coming by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      "The event" means Jesus is on his way.

      Ironic then that it's a false alarm.

      But even if it did happen, it happened two million years ago, when mankind was little more than short walking chimps. Hard to believe Jesus made an enormous explosion in some other galaxy that would have no effect here 2 million years before being born. Or maybe you're just being funny. Hard to tell sometimes.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    2. Re:Jesus is coming by mbone · · Score: 1

      http://web.archive.org/web/200...

  14. Andromeda Rules by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 1

    It was the Andromedans flashing a mirror aimed at us right back in our direction.
    If we examine closely, we might see what our oldest African ancestors really
    looked like, how they struggled to get by on their hind legs, and how they had no
    inkling of a concept of space and time and constellations and galaxies named
    Andromeda.

    .

    1. Re:Andromeda Rules by tekrat · · Score: 1

      Or we could see nothing, because according to the creationists, the universe is only 6000 years old.

      --
      If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
    2. Re:Andromeda Rules by amaurea · · Score: 1

      In theory, all we need to do is find a black hole and look with unreasonably high resolution and sensitivity at a point slightly more than 0.5 black hole radii away from its horizon (i.e. 1.5 schwarzchild radii from the center). The black hole acts as a lens, and at that point light is deflected by 180 degrees, letting us look back at ourselves as the earth was 2d years ago, where d is the distance to the hole in lightyears. In fact, by looking even closer to the point 0.5 black hole radii away, you can get to a point where light is deflected by 540 degrees, giving us an even fainter and more distorted image of ourselves a few minutes after the second image, and so on in infinity. In practice, even the first image will be so faint that it probably won't contain even a single photon, and would be washed out by the noise in the environment of the black hole (and between us and it) even if it did. But it's a fun through experiment.

  15. A bright Gamma Ray event? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope they played "Heavy Metal Universe".

  16. "and far enough to not kill us all." by Virtucon · · Score: 1

    Who are the lucky contestants?

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
  17. There goes the death star by skaag · · Score: 1

    Somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away, a death star was just blown up to smithereens by the rebel forces :-)

    --

    All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...

    1. Re:There goes the death star by LoRdTAW · · Score: 1

      You forgot to add "a long time ago..."

  18. Climate Change caused it by Dak_Peoples · · Score: 1

    CNN will ask the question if Climate Change here on earth caused it.

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    This is my signature.
  19. Armchair astrophysics question by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

    I could've sworn I watched a documentary that stated gamma ray bursts are only observed at extremely long distances so there's little likelihood of one occurring close enough to be a threat to us. Right or wrong?

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
    1. Re:Armchair astrophysics question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mostly right. They're only observed at extremely long distances because if one was close you'd be killed instead of observing.

    2. Re:Armchair astrophysics question by amaurea · · Score: 1

      From the Wikipedia article

      Estimating the exact rate at which GRBs occur is difficult, but for a galaxy of approximately the same size as the Milky Way, the expected rate (for long-duration GRBs) is about one burst every 100,000 to 1,000,000 years. Only a small percentage of these would be beamed towards Earth. Estimates of rate of occurrence of short-duration GRBs are even more uncertain because of the unknown degree of collimation, but are probably comparable

      So they are mostly seen very far away due to volume effects. There are far more galaxies >100 Mly away than galaxies 100 Mly away, for example.

  20. Oh snap... by Beavertank · · Score: 1

    Looks like someone in the Andromeda Galaxy just worked out how to make a doomsday weapon.

    There goes the galactic neighborhood.

  21. Sorry. You meant, "hasn't killed us YET." by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1

    Since we can't predict anything about its future behavior. Say, I was asking myself yesterday, why there didn't seem to be any other intelligent technological life in the universe. I wonder...

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  22. Apparently it was a false alarm... by johanwanderer · · Score: 4, Informative

    See here: http://profmattstrassler.com/2... "a known object in Andromeda that emits X-rays appeared to brighten, as a result of electronic noise in Swift’s instruments"

  23. The Malaysian jet by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

    No, if it is CNN, they will somehow link it to the Malaysian airliner.

  24. It's Jesus by Hategrin · · Score: 1

    It's proof that Jesus has entered our universe and is coming to Earth to rapture his people. Unless you can prove this isn't true, to the same level as say, the fundamental theorem of Calculus, then it has to be true. Hallelujah praise Jesus.

  25. Holy shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I hope I can get tickets to THAT!

  26. Actually ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... It's probably a warning from Eddore, I hope the Arisians are ready.