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Researchers Detect A Mysterious Flash Of X-Rays From A Faraway Galaxy (nytimes.com)
"It was a spark in the night. A flash of X-rays from a galaxy hovering nearly invisibly on the edge of infinity. Astronomers say they do not know what caused it." Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes the New York Times:
The orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory, was in the midst of a 75-day survey of a patch of sky known as the Chandra Deep Field-South, when it recorded the burst from a formerly quiescent spot in the cosmos. For a few brief hours on Oct 1, 2014, the X-rays were a thousand times brighter than all the light from its home galaxy, a dwarf unremarkable speck almost 11 billion light years from here, in the constellation Fornax. Then whatever had gone bump in the night was over and the X-rays died.
The event as observed does not fit any known phenomena, according to Franz Bauer, an astronomer at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and lead author of a report to be published in Science.
He described some possible explanation in a blog post this week -- for example, a star being torn apart by a black hole, or the afterglow from a gamma ray burst seen sideways -- but the spectrum readings aren't a match, according to the Times. "None of the usual cosmic catastrophe suspects work."
The event as observed does not fit any known phenomena, according to Franz Bauer, an astronomer at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and lead author of a report to be published in Science.
He described some possible explanation in a blog post this week -- for example, a star being torn apart by a black hole, or the afterglow from a gamma ray burst seen sideways -- but the spectrum readings aren't a match, according to the Times. "None of the usual cosmic catastrophe suspects work."
Clearly someone destroyed the Reapers.
Astronomical observations don't always need to be reported as "mysterious," tbh.
No gods, no demons, and no masters. Secular Humanism!
This "mysterious" Flash form a faraway galaxy has been mentioned in print since the '30s.
Here's a youtube video that gives a brief explanation.
if they told us when the event happened. 11 billion light years away didn't happen last nite.
Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.
I wonder how long it takes light to travel 11 billion light years. Maybe if someone could figure that out, we could tell when the event happened.
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
The universe is still expanding. Maybe something hit a wall. A Huuuuuuuuge Wallllllll!
I'm sorry, I just could not help myself. Mod me down, I deserve it.
X-rays, of course, are a form of electromagnetic radiation (as is light), and travel at the speed of light
I wonder how long it takes light to travel 11 billion light years. Maybe if someone could figure that out, we could tell when the event happened.
An interesting thing to note is that the source wasn't 11 billion light years away when the light was emitted-- it was only 2.2 billion light years away back then. It took the light 11 billion years to travel that 2.2 billion light year distance at the speed of light.
Sounds paradoxical, doesn't it! That's the expansion of the universe in a nutshell.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
A flash of X-rays from a galaxy hovering nearly invisibly on the edge of infinity
To paraphrase Crichton...
Life will, uh, find... a ray.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So have they analysed the burst for data content? It could have been a civilization broadcasting all of their knowledge in one great encyclopedia.
Sadly, we weren't here to catch the public encryption key they published a billion years earlier.
If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
If the universe is expanding wouldn't the distance that the light has to travel also expand as well during the journey? So really the light would have traveled more then 2.2 billion light years distance?
Exactly. The two points were 2.2 billion light years apart when the light started travelling, but due to the fact that space was expanding as the light travelled, the distance travelled was 11 billion light years, not 2.2.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com