Strongest X-Ray Burst Ever Seen Bombards NASA's Swift Observatory, Temporarily Blinding It

[EmperorScorpious]

[QUOTE]NASA scientists have figured out what temporarily knocked out the X-ray detector on the agency's Swift space observatory earlier this summer: the strongest blast of X-rays ever recorded from beyond the Milky Way slammed into Swift unexpectedly, overwhelming the detector and puzzling mission handlers for a moment. But good luck sending a bill to the culprit for time lost; the X-rays were spawned 5 billion years ago during the violent explosion of a massive star as it turned into a black hole.

The gamma ray burst that struck on June 21 was the brightest light source ever recorded in X-ray wavelengths at that kind of distance, though in optical and ultraviolet wavelengths it was more or less ordinary. It was bright enough that the software that NASA uses to analyze the data from Swift simply shut down, as it was unable to keep up with the overwhelming number of photons bombarding the sensor. One researcher who helped write the software likened the burst to trying to measure the flow rate of a tsunami with a rain gauge and a bucket.

The software did resume capturing data shortly thereafter, recording the evolution of the burst and recovering the data that Swift detected during the software shutdown. From that, they were able to piece together a numerical picture of the intergalactic attack: 143,000 X-ray photons per second during peak brightness. By comparison, the brightest ongoing X-ray source in the sky is 500,000 times closer to us yet only sends 10,000 photons per second our way.

Dubbed GRB 100621A for those keeping score at home, the gamma ray burst was 5 times larger than the brightest one previously seen, and until it happened many thought such a bright burst wasn't likely or even possible.

[img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/xray.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]

Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-07/strongest-x-ray-burst-ever-bombards-nasas-swift-observatory-temporarily-blinding-it[/url]

[Chickens!]

Planets exploding in our galaxy?
That's not very good now is it?

[Zackin5]

osht we're all gonna diee.

[Undomian]

[QUOTE=Chickens!;23494737]Planets exploding in our galaxy?
That's not very good now is it?[/QUOTE]
[quote]
violent explosion of a [b]massive star[/b] as it turned into a black hole.
[/quote]

[Occlusion2018]

Neat.

[bravehat]

[QUOTE=Chickens!;23494737]Planets exploding in our galaxy?
That's not very good now is it?[/QUOTE]

If you look at the night sky and make a circle with your index and thumb.

In an empty region of space at least 10 stars will explode in that tiny tiny area.

Happens all the time, but if it was to happen close to us, oh man we would be fucked.

And dude come on to fuck it said star, several times.

[FalconKrunch]

shiiiiit, where is the Gamma ray burst at? Because if it's in our galaxy :ohdear:

[RixxzIV]

[QUOTE=Chickens!;23494737]Planets exploding in our galaxy?
That's not very good now is it?[/QUOTE]

It was a star exploding. Something which basically happens all the time.

[radioactive]

[QUOTE=bravehat;23494804]
And dude come on to fuck it said [b]star[/b], several times.[/QUOTE]

Texas!

[bravehat]

[QUOTE=FalconKrunch;23494816]shiiiiit, where is the Gamma ray burst at? Because if it's in our galaxy :ohdear:[/QUOTE]

There are gamma ray bursts in our galaxy dude.

Why do people somehow think our galaxy is immune to all the shit that happens in our universe?

Fuck we have black holes that can pretty much evade detection, roam around galaxies just swallowing everything.

[url]http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Science/story?id=2365372&page=1[/url]

[QUOTE]"Then, in the year 2000, all hell broke loose," Kaku says. "[B]At that point, we had conclusive evidence that there are wandering black holes -- nomads, renegades -- right next to us in our own backyard of a galaxy."[/B][/QUOTE]

Things are inevitably going to get worse, and they will never ever get better again.

[Canuhearme?]

In fact, the Milky Way is the 2nd largest galaxy in the Local Group by amount of stars and mass :smug:

[Paige]

[QUOTE=radioactive;23494926]Texas![/QUOTE]

I love you now.

[Master117]

Space is so fucking crazy. There is so much shit going on out there.

[bravehat]

Oh sweet i found out there's a nomad black hole that orbits the plane of the milky way zipping just over our solar system :v:

[url]http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/blackhole_010913.html[/url]

[Block]

To people freaking out about this: We could die ("we" as in all life on this planet) any moment for all kinds of different reasons. Accept it, move on.

[DOG-GY]

[QUOTE=Block;23495294]To people freaking out about this: We could die ("we" as in all life on this planet) any moment for all kinds of different reasons. Accept it, move on.[/QUOTE]
It's not as if there'd be no warning.

[Block]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;23495469]It's not as if there'd be no warning.[/QUOTE]

Wrong. If a deadly gamma ray burst would strike us, we wouldn't see it coming. Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation and thus travel at the speed of light.

[bravehat]

[QUOTE=DOG-GY;23495469]It's not as if there'd be no warning.[/QUOTE]

Good luck detecting a gamma ray burst before it hits earth.

[Zakk]

Behold, we're fucked.

[bravehat]

Of course we are.

Are we gonna let it stop us.

Fuck no, cause we're awesome :pcgaming: