quote: WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A trio of powerful explosions emanating from three different regions in space could mean astronomers might see stars blowing up within days, scientists said on Friday.
Astronomers believe the blasts -- which took place on September 12, 16 and 24 and lasted only a few seconds each -- may be precursors to stellar explosions called supernovae. If this turns out to be true, astronomers would have a new tool to predict these explosions, and researchers could watch the blasts from start to finish.
Now THAT would be nice! A couple of weeks ago I read A.C.Clarke's Earthlight and one of the things happening in it was exactly witnessing of a supernova. Although, of course, more down-to-earth problems made it sink into background...
Posted by CStroman (Member # 6872) on :
That's cool!
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
And here I thought that this was going to be a kat tribute thread.
Interesting article though.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
ooooh, or maybe it's interstellar war among alien civilizations!
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Whatever it is, it happened 1 - 3 billion years ago.
Posted by Megan (Member # 5290) on :
I know, Bob. But let me rephrase for clarity:
ooooh, or maybe it WAS interstellar war among alien civilizations!
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
Bob, that makes the following quote seem a little bit strange:
quote: These three recent blasts...
doesn't it?
Edit: Megan, then it would have been quite a war, since the article says the explotions were "far away from each other". And far, in space, tends to mean really far...
[ October 03, 2004, 03:55 PM: Message edited by: Corwin ]
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
*applauds*
Darn city lights... Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
I saw a really weird thing today on the way to a soccer game. It looked like a badminton birdie coming down from the sky, straight down. My daughter asked if it was a meteor, I said that is what it looked like, she said she was afraid I might say that.
For a while, trees blocked us, and when we saw it again, it was much farther away, and appeared to be moving horizontally, rather than vertically.
What the heck?? It was really creepy. We live near Westover AFB, so maybe some weird aircraft?
Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :
If it WAS an intersteller war between alien races then now is a good time to be REALLY scared. Any race that has weapons of that power... well lets just say they'd have to redefine 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'.
Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :
Elizabeth, what state is Westover AFB in?
Anywhere near here?
quote: MOJAVE, Calif., Sept. 29 - Completing the first leg of a quest for a $10 million prize, a test pilot took a privately financed plane past the cusp of space on Wednesday morning in a flight that had equal measures of white-knuckle moments and triumph.
The rocket ship left the ground at 7:10 a.m. and reached a height unofficially reported at 337,500 feet (63.9 miles), well above its 328,000-foot goal set by the X Prize. That goal altitude, 100 kilometers above the Earth, is an arbitrary but widely accepted definition for the border of space. By 8:34, the squid-shaped craft had glided safely back to the runway.
The plane, called SpaceShipOne, was first lofted to 50,000 feet by a carrier craft called White Knight, which then released it so that it could fire its engine and reach its maximum altitude. Both craft were created by the aircraft designer Burt Rutan and financed by Paul G. Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft.
They might have been taken it up again just for fun if so I dunno exactly when the next flight is schedualed for, but sometime in the next two weeks.
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I dunno exactly when the next flight is schedualed for, but sometime in the next two weeks.