Burst Of Old News
This just in, from space.com: BREAKING NEWS: Creation of Black Hole Detected Today
...
Astronomers have photographed an amazing cosmic event -- the birth of a black hole. Wowie! Two neutron stars come together, and the result is a burst of gamma rays followed by a brief Pop! in the visible.
Uh, and a black hole. Can't forget that. Can't see it, of course, but that's another story.
We might expect this newborn black hole to be given some kind of stately cosmic name, or maybe something cute; I was thinking "Goober." Seems I have little or no imagination for these things, in light of the actual name chosen by our ever-clever scientific community:
GRB050509b.
Kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Heh-heh. Those crazy, fun-loving scientists!
G00ber, definitely.
Before you go hunting for that intergalactic congratulations card and gift set, hang on. The article also says the "merger" (can we start drawing industry parallels now?) actually happened some time back. How long, you say? Try "2.2 billion years."
So I guess lil' G00ber is like, a black hole teenager by now. Wonder if it hangs with that Goth crowd, two galaxies over...
...
Astronomers have photographed an amazing cosmic event -- the birth of a black hole. Wowie! Two neutron stars come together, and the result is a burst of gamma rays followed by a brief Pop! in the visible.
Uh, and a black hole. Can't forget that. Can't see it, of course, but that's another story.
We might expect this newborn black hole to be given some kind of stately cosmic name, or maybe something cute; I was thinking "Goober." Seems I have little or no imagination for these things, in light of the actual name chosen by our ever-clever scientific community:
GRB050509b.
Kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Heh-heh. Those crazy, fun-loving scientists!
G00ber, definitely.
Before you go hunting for that intergalactic congratulations card and gift set, hang on. The article also says the "merger" (can we start drawing industry parallels now?) actually happened some time back. How long, you say? Try "2.2 billion years."
So I guess lil' G00ber is like, a black hole teenager by now. Wonder if it hangs with that Goth crowd, two galaxies over...
iRad time |
5/09/2005 06:11:00 PM
2 Emissions:
If two neutron stars crash in the universe do they make a sound?
Two answers come to mind. First, we'll find out when the "audio" arrives. Let's see, 2.2 billion years for the photons, light travels - hmm, how much slower is sound compared to light? So, yeah - time enough for coffee I think.
Second, recall what we learned from the ads for Ridly Scott's Alien: in space no one can hear you scream. So as long as they weren't screaming when they crashed, we should hear something!
Eventually.
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