Comments on: Titanic GRB still going strong

By: tony

tony — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:53:36 +0000

Gergg Easterbrook of ESPN has an interesting view regarding these GRBs. He sees potential evidence of doomsday-type weapons used by ancient and far-off civilizations in their death throes locked in a deadly war agaisnt a powerful and destructive enemy. Perhaps his view is more science fiction than science, but nevertheless amusing.

By: Kevin F.

Kevin F. — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:15:36 +0000

I just had a thought about this Gamma Ray Burst and Extraterrestrial Life.

If we want to call attention to ourselves, we should send a signal out (you know, like the Prime Numbers, etc), in the direction this burst is headed – right now. We know that any race intelligent enough to have their own version of SWIFT has the capability to detect our signal.

If indeed there is another race that picks up on this we know they’ll be looking in our direction.

Just a thought.

By: spicoli

spicoli — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:28:08 +0000

I wonder if a GRB event could cook my frozen pizza?

By: Ken B

Ken B — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:49:03 +0000

So, anyone know how “narrow” the GRB would be? Even if it were confined to a beam of 0.001 degrees, that would still be over 130,000 light years across after traveling 7.5 billion light years.

By: Barton Paul Levenson

Barton Paul Levenson — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:02:35 +0000

Edward, the gamma rays are reaching us now. They’re not intense enough to do any damage.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:49:20 +0000

Will the gamma rays eventually reach us in 7.5 billion years?
Or will they diminish to a point that is inconsequential?

By: Mr. LAME

Mr. LAME — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:44:16 +0000

another dimension signal
or our future tehcnology say hello to us ???
nothing is imposible

By: YinYang0564

YinYang0564 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:38:52 +0000

Now, go away or I will taunt you a second time!

By: NoAstronomer

NoAstronomer — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:16:55 +0000

“What’s fun to think about is how many other GRBs have been like this one?”

What I like to think about is how many other GRBs occur that we never see – because they’re not aimed at us. We seem to see a lot of them and yet we probably observe 1/1000th, or less, of all the GRBs. Which would seem to indicate that these things are popping all over the place.

By: Torbjörn Larsson, OM

Torbjörn Larsson, OM — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:27:17 +0000

Maybe whole planets-full of microbes were zapped, though.

Perhaps, but that would likely be harder too. Speculations of early non-organic or organic catalysts consisting of iron-sulfur surfaces still found in simple proteins or about the possible need for other metals in more complex monocellular organisms points to carbon only compounds as an added constraint for evolution. A constraint that evolution would in all likelihood eventually circumvent, of course. [And I'm agnostic about the quality of the specific study I linked to.]

By: Adria

Adria — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:36:20 +0000

3 weeks after the event … and 2 weeks and 2 days after the first paper on the event was submitted. I’m thinking this field might be a bit too competitive for me.

By: slang

slang — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:50:20 +0000

“What’s fun to think about is how many other GRBs have been like this one? Probably not many, actually, so it was good for us that we happened to have the Swift satellite operating when the GRB went off.”

That would be a huge coincidence, depending on what you mean with “not many”, of course. If we, in our short period of telescope usage, see a transient event in the universe, it is safe to assume that it’s very unlikely to be something unique or rare (in astronomical sense).

As is said about gravitational lensing, http://tinyurl.com/48r4ba : “[...] one should remember that the Universe is large enough that unlikely things happen really quite often.”

By: RayCeeYa

RayCeeYa — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 04:09:22 +0000

Sweet now we just need to see a few dozen more to find out how common these superluminous GRBs are.

Then we can worry, or not depending on what the data says.

By: Daniel Fischer

Daniel Fischer — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:24:09 +0000

The first paper you link to actually states that the energy of that GRB was not extraordinary at all and that it may even have been underluminous: It all depends on the opening angle of the jet which is unexpectedly hard to pin down in this case (the paper discusses several scenarios fitting the data).

The 2nd paper linked to actually comes from supporters of a fringe model of GRBs; it’s supporters are quick to make strong statements …

By: Shaun

Shaun — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:18:50 +0000

Judging from the Wikipedia article, these things are friggin scary. Still, if one hit us head on with enough juice to trigger extinction events, I wonder if I could get to that hemisphere fast enough to watch the biggest light show in the universe.

/badastronomy.com is one of the Wikipedia references on the subject of GRBS.

By: Ginger Yellow

Ginger Yellow — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:57:41 +0000

So what are we going to learn from this? What are the many research projects in the GRB field?

By: Kevin F.

Kevin F. — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:17:54 +0000

Mayhap this was the “Core Explosion” from Larry Niven’s Known Space Universe.

By: Jack Hagerty

Jack Hagerty — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:11 +0000

The BA says: “I had talked about an earlier burst originally, but substituted this one in for it. I’m glad the timing worked out so well.”

Glad the universe is in sync with your book. All I got to squeeze in at the last second was the fact that Fox is remaking “Day the Earth Stood Still”

- Jack

By: Superstring

Superstring — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:55:14 +0000

I wonder what Halton Arp would have to say about this….