Real Science

[Cmdr JFarrington 0]

Intergalactic 'shot in the dark' shocks astronomers.

 

A team of astronomers at Penn State and Caltech has discovered a cosmic explosion that seems to have come from the middle of nowhere -- thousands of light-years from the nearest galaxy-sized collection of stars, gas and dust. This "shot in the dark" is surprising because the type of explosion, a long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB), is thought to be powered by the death of a massive star. The blast was detected on Jan. 25 by several spacecraft of the Inter-Planetary Network. Observations by NASA's Swift satellite, controlled from its Mission Operation Center at Penn State, pinpointed the explosion, named GRB 070125 for its detection date, to a region of sky in the constellation Gemini. It was one of the brightest bursts of the year, and the Caltech/Penn State team moved quickly to observe the burst's location with ground-based telescopes. What came next was a total surprise.

 

Read the full story on Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/27898?nw=1

[V'Roy 0]

Maybe it was the Death Star.

[Guest STSF Lebowski]

Maybe it was the Death Star.

 

 

Well the article DID say that this event took place a long, long time ago. But what was confusing is that there was no far away galaxy nearby.

 

Seriously, though, thanks Cmdr Farrington for always posting these neat scientific articles. I always find them fascinating..

[Briony Maddox 0]

Wow, that's pretty cool.

[Buddy 0]

to bad there was no good pic's. Thanks for the good story.