The Andromeda Galaxy Just Had a Bright Gamma Ray Event

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."

Comments

Re:Wound in the Force

[Immerman]

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.