Historic explosion in space today!

Today the most powerful gamma ray burst ever, has been observed.

Even though it was 8 milliard (billion) lightyears away, we could still see it with the naked eye.

The burst happened in the starsign Bootes, and lasted 50 seconds. The explosion happened because a big and energy-rich star died, and made a black hole.

This is a pretty sensational case among astronomers. This burst was over 20 times more powerful than the last big one in 1999.

Dangerous gamma ray bursts
This burst reminds us that highly violent and threatening fenomena occur in space. If a burst happens closer than 2 milliard (billion) light years away, we got trouble. If the distance is 50,000 lightyears away, it is estimated that 50% of humans will die within a month. Unfortunatly there are many stars closer than that... and life on earth may be in the danger zone.

en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 19-3-2008 by Daniem]

[edit on 19-3-2008 by Daniem]

reply to post by Daniem


Doesn't this mean it happened 8 million years ago?

The earth is about eight light minutes from the Sun (so the light that is shining down on you left the sun eight minutes ago).

So the gamma ray burst happened 8 billion years ago

[edit on 19-3-2008 by Daniem]

It seems to me that those locations directly exposed to the burst would be affected the most, while the impacts would fade away as one moved further away from that point. I wonder if we could put up a solar shield that could quickly cover an part of the sky.

If we could actually see it with the naked eye, that means visable light can get from the explosion to us. So how about gamma rays?
Just not enough to worry, I'm sure

The sun is eventually going to explode and destroy all of humanity, so there's not much hope for us now is there

reply to post by watch_the_rocks

If we could actually see it with the naked eye, that means visable light can get from the explosion to us. So how about gamma rays?

According to this Source, high energy gamma rays reached earth 4 seconds later from a distant black hole source. Kind of goes against Einsteins theorys but still light and gamma rays travel nearly but not quite the same speed.

The only thing between us and damage by gamma rays is the earths magnetic field which absorbs and shields us from most rays.

reply to post by Daniem


A link would have been nice.

reply to post by BlackProjects



Now this ladies and gentlemen is comedy!!!!!




Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 20-3-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

reply to post by Daniem


Do you have a link on this. I'm not finding anything. You say this happened in the "startsign Bootes." Did you mean that the gamma burst was observed by the Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System? [ Wiki: BOOTES ]


A burst lasting this long (50 seconds) and visible by the naked eye (for the first time ever), yet the typical science news sources don't have it. Weird. Where did you hear about this, Daniem? I'm seeing reports for the 1999 burst but nothing - of such note - recently. Thanks.






[edit on 19-3-2008 by Rren]

reply to post by Rren


nope, i read it on the site for norwegian tv www.nrk.no...

I could not find any other sites in english with this news. they did however link to another norwegian site
www.bangirommet.no...
which is a site run by astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard

I just linked up to gamma ray burst website. The universe is lighting up like a christmas tree. Eight or so new bursts just today. That is very unusual. Wonder what could be spurring so many grb's in such short order.

Originally posted by jpm1602
I just linked up to gamma ray burst website. The universe is lighting up like a christmas tree. Eight or so new bursts just today. That is very unusual. Wonder what could be spurring so many grb's in such short order.

Universal Acceleration! All Suns are increasing their vibration, heating up the solar systems which they sustain,

does this have something to do with the bursts? I don't see why not.

Of course how would we get a hint that 'momentum' in the Universe is picknig up when we as a species are only observing 1/100000000000000th of history...

Originally posted by theendisnear69
The sun is eventually going to explode and destroy all of humanity, so there's not much hope for us now is there

in how many years?


millions...........


i think we will be rather smart enuff to save humanity by then maybe even toe lil earth along with us

Originally posted by Daniem

nope, i read it on the site for norwegian tv www.nrk.no...

I could not find any other sites in english with this news. they did however link to another norwegian site
www.bangirommet.no...
which is a site run by astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard

Well, that's strange I can't find it anywhere. My browser can't translate Norwegian to English, so those links don't help me. Could you maybe translate some of the relevant info (dates, times, researchers, site, etc)? I really think that it's odd none of the many, many, many sciencenews sites out there mentioned this at all. Although maybe this isn't such a big deal, there is much more mundane stuff being reported, surely this deserved a mention, somewhere, at least.

Originally posted by jpm1602
I just linked up to gamma ray burst website. The universe is lighting up like a christmas tree. Eight or so new bursts just today. That is very unusual. Wonder what could be spurring so many grb's in such short order.

grb.sonoma.edu...


Looking at the Burst List on that page, today seems pretty typical. What are you concerned about with respect to recent activity? What site are you using?

Originally posted by BRITWARRIOR

Originally posted by theendisnear69
The sun is eventually going to explode and destroy all of humanity, so there's not much hope for us now is there

in how many years?


millions...........

Our sun is middle-aged; we have got about 5 billion years left.


Edit- typos

[edit on 20-3-2008 by Rren]

Originally posted by Daniem
Today the most powerful gamma ray burst ever, has been observed.

I'm not sure that this is entirely correct. Yesterdays GRB was the brightest (in visual wavelengths) observed so far, but may not necessarily have been the most powerful GRB observed - I could be wrong.

The GRB is listed on the SWIFT website here: swift.gsfc.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by plumranch
reply to post by watch_the_rocks

 

If we could actually see it with the naked eye, that means visable light can get from the explosion to us. So how about gamma rays?

According to this Source, high energy gamma rays reached earth 4 seconds later from a distant black hole source. Kind of goes against Einsteins theorys but still light and gamma rays travel nearly but not quite the same speed.

The only thing between us and damage by gamma rays is the earths magnetic field which absorbs and shields us from most rays.

Wow.. 4 seconds separation in 8 billion years! I don't know why I find that so unbelievable but even the very smallest difference in speed could mean the gamma rays reach us years earlier or later. 4 seconds.. 8 billion years.. WOW

reply to post by Rren


i have translated the relevant things on the page.. and they didnt write who observed this etc.. but ill keep looking.

Found something:



Using the SWIFT site C.H.U.D. provided the info on GRB 080319B is:

March 19, 2008 GRB080319b

TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER: 7427
SUBJECT: GRB 080319B: Swift detection of an intense burst with a bright optical counterpart
DATE: 08/03/19 06:32:26 GMT
FROM: David Palmer at LANL



J. L. Racusin (PSU), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC),
S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
C. B. Markwardt (CRESST/GSFC/UMD), C. Pagani (PSU),
D. M. Palmer (LANL) and M. Stamatikos (NASA/ORAU) report on behalf of
the Swift Team:



At 06:12:49 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 080319B (trigger=306757). Swift slewed immediately to
the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is
RA, Dec 217.926, +36.303 which is


RA(J2000) = 14h 31m 42s
Dec(J2000) = +36d 18' 10"


with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including
systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed one bright but
complex peak with a duration of about 50 sec, with an extended tail.
The peak count rate was ~70,000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~20 sec
after the trigger.

Looks like more info on GRB 080319B should be on the way in the next few days as more scientists get at look at it and its data. In the meantime, here's something else to ponder....



Read a nice story on a potential GRB threat at the Bad Astronomy blog last night: WR 104: A nearby gamma-ray burst?

Up until now, I hadn’t heard of WR 104. This is a binary star located 8000 light years away, more or less toward the center of our galaxy. The two stars are both whoppers; one is a massive O star, which will someday detonate in a tremendous supernova. However, at that great distance, it won’t do anything more than be a bright light in the sky.

The other star in the system is a bit of a worry, though. It’s what’s called a Wolf Rayet star, a massive, luminous star that is on the brink of exploding as well. In general, these also blow up as supernovae and, from 8000 light years away (80 quadrillion kilometers) it wouldn’t pose much of a threat.
But what if it explodes as a gamma-ray burst?

That was a good read. If you don't mind contemplating the death of just about anything bigger than a cockaroach that is. Starring down the barrel. Maybe. Maybe not. We won't know 'til it's here and we're dead. Or we're not.

Sweet dreams.

reply to post by Rren


C'est la vie!







two thoughts:
I wonder if we will get sophisticated enough to use HAARP or a device like that to buffer the effect of things of this nature.

If one had an enclosed environment with a transparent covering that blocked harmful sun rays and gamma bursts then one could possibly weather that sort of event.