Breaking News: Creation of Black Hole Detected Today

A faint visible-light flash moments after a high-energy gamma-ray burst likely heralds the merger of two dense neutron stars to create a relatively low-mass black hole, said Neil Gehrels of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It is the first time an optical counterpart to a very short-duration gamma-ray burst has ever been detected.

The Birth of a Black Hole

*Fixed caps lock in title*

[edit on 12-5-2005 by dbates]

very cool!
nice find, i think that this is really interesting. To think that it happened 2.2 billion years ago and we are just now finding out about it.

Originally posted by Tom Sawyer
very cool!
nice find, i think that this is really interesting. To think that it happened 2.2 billion years ago and we are just now finding out about it.

absolutely...extraordinary

I wonder about the long term effects the resulting gamma ray burst will have on the region - i guess it won't be known for some time to come!

Originally posted by antiriad
I wonder about the long term effects the resulting gamma ray burst will have on the region - i guess it won't be known for some time to come!

False! Gamma rays travel at a higher speed and frequency. (they have more energy) THe truth is that the radio waves will take quite some time to reach earth. Maybe in another two billion years there will be a massive radio frequency disruption. Good thinking though.

All electromagnetic radiation including radio waves, visible light, and gamma rays travel at the same speed, the speed of light.

I was wrong.
(you don't hear that too often, so don't get used to it)
THank you for correcting me. I am glad i won't make that mistake again.

This is truly amazing news!

I am happy to see these discoveries are happening