X-ray and Gamma Ray Bursts May precede 3 Supernovae (from ATSNN), page 1

posted on Oct, 2 2004 @ 01:08 PM

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Astronomers have observerd two weak X-Ray bursts comming out of Pisces and Aquarius, and then a powerful Gamma Ray burst comming out of Aries. They think these are the fronts of three seperate Supernovae and will be looking to confirm the 'visual' light supernovae

story.news.yahoo.com
The explosions occurred in the constellations Aquarius, Pisces and Aries, and all are more than 1 billion light-years from Earth, and also far away from each other, said George Ricker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (news - web sites), whose team detected the explosions with NASA (news - web sites)'s High-Energy Transient Explorer (HETE-2) satellite.

The two in Aquarius and Pisces were the less powerful X-ray flashes, and may range from 1 billion to 3 billion light-years' distance from Earth, Ricker said in a telephone interview. The gamma ray burst was located in Aries could range from 1 billion to 8 billion light-years distance, he said.

A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

Theoretically, within 10 to 20 days of these blasts, observers might see supernovae in these three locations, Ricker said.

"Astronomers now have three places that they can look ... If they're looking at the right spot at the right time, they'll see a supernova turn on, and that would be the first time that's happened for an X-ray flash," Ricker said. It happened last year for a gamma ray burst, he said.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

Apparntly Gamma Ray bursts are the most powerful kind of explosions, and this is the first time X-rays have been used for this sort of thing. I rather have to wonder what astrologers will think of the partiuclar zodiac signs involved in this too. I hope they realize that some of these explosions occured before the Earth and Solar system even existed.
Supernovae release higher atomic weight elements into the universe. If the universe is around 12 billion years old (give or take a billion or two) and these are around 8 billion, they might be explosions from the early generations of stars in the Universe. Interestingly, similiarly timed explosions (and previous ones I should think) would have created and released the very elements that everyone and everything on earth is made up of.

Related News Links:
space.mit.edu
www.space.com
www.nasa.gov
www.rednova.com

[edit on 2-10-2004 by John bull 1]

Ut

posted on Oct, 2 2004 @ 01:48 PM

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It's not so much that this is new for X-rays, but rather that there are competing theories as to what x-ray flashes are. There's a group that's trying to equate them with low-yield gamma ray bursts, and they'll be watching the x-ray flashes carefully to see if they evolve in the same way as the gamma ray burst.

E_T

posted on Oct, 2 2004 @ 02:17 PM

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I wonder who wrote that Yahoo article:
...they'll see a supernova turn on, and that would be the first time that's happened for an X-ray flash," Ricker said. It happened last year for a gamma ray burst, he said.

Even amateurs have observed optical afterglows of GRBs for many years!

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