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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."

23 of 129 comments (clear)

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

    to not kill us 'ALL'

    1. 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 : )
    2. 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)

    3. 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

    4. 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.
    5. 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.

  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: 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.

    3. 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!

  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 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!
    2. 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.
  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 rudy_wayne · · Score: 3, Funny

      All it lacks is the blinking font.

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

  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. 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?

  7. 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.

  8. 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?
  9. 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.
  10. 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"