It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Scientists have detected two mysterious objects in space that dramatically flare into a burst of bright X-rays, and they're like nothing we've ever seen before. These mysterious X-ray sources – which have been observed erupting in two different galaxies – qualify at their peak as what astronomers call ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), but their unusual flaring behaviour doesn't match up with any known cosmic phenomena.
"We've never seen anything like this," says astronomer Jimmy Irwin from the University of Alabama. "Astronomers have seen many different objects that flare up, but these may be examples of an entirely new phenomenon."
So what's causing this to happen? The astronomers don't know for sure, but it's possible the outbursts are due to matter that's been sucked from a star falling onto a black hole – or potentially onto a neutron star.
In either case, it's a mystery scientists will be eager to solve, especially given the evidence that NGC 4697's outbursts don't seem to have been a fluke.
originally posted by: scubagravy
a reply to: Mianeye
It's the Armada... they're coming.
Looks like they have just enough to surround our planet.
originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
a reply to: Mianeye
These are our saviours - one looks like a giant CFL lightbulb - good for the environment - friendly invasion.
originally posted by: butcherguy
originally posted by: scubagravy
a reply to: Mianeye
It's the Armada... they're coming.
Looks like they have just enough to surround our planet.
Two of them, not quite an armada.
Closest one is 14 light years away.
Oh, you are joking.