2012
[ News Blog of Survive2012 ]
 
 
Thursday, 2. March 2006

New Type of Cosmic Explosion



Could this be evidence of a new space nasty? One that can occur close enough to cause us harm in 2012?

A new kind of cosmic explosion, catalogued as GRB 060218, has been spotted in Earth's celestial neighbourhood, scientists report.

The blast seems like a gamma-ray burst, but when scientists first detected it with NASA's Swift satellite on 18 February, the explosion was about 25 times closer and lasted 100 times longer than a typical gamma-ray burst.

"This could be a new kind of burst, or we might be seeing a gamma-ray burst from an entirely different angle," said Swift scientist John Nousek at Penn State University. Astronomers don't fully understand gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). But they theorize that when one is pointed our way, it appears brighter than when the beams it produces shoot off in other directions.

The explosion originated in a star-forming galaxy about 440 million light-years away towards the constellation Aries. This would be the second-closest gamma-ray burst ever detected, if indeed it is one.

The burst lasted for nearly 2000 seconds, or about 33 minutes, astronomers say. Most bursts last a few milliseconds to tens of seconds.

It was dimmer than most. Even so, the newly spotted point of light in the sky outshines the entire galaxy in which the event occurred.

If the eruption indeed precedes a supernova, then it would reach peak brightness in about a week, scientists said.



Sources: ABC + Space.com + NASA


 
online for 8354 Days
last updated: 8/20/10, 3:53 PM
xml version of this page
Google

status
Youre not logged in ... Login
menu
... home
... search
... topics
... 
... 
... email me
... Home
... Tags

... antville home
November 2024
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
September
recent
recent


...2012 news




2012 & related sites


survive2012.com
Survive 2012
2012 Myths and Facts
End of the World on Dec 21 2012?
2012: Dire Gnosis
assorted blogs I like

Adult MatchMaker