Comments on: Happy birthday, Swift!

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:05:15 +0000

Happy birthday Swift!

100 light years away, it would cook us like a whelk in a supernova.

Don’t you mean over-cook there?

@7. Georg : Good one. LOL.

@ 3. Arthur Dent : “A whelk? But, why a whelk?”

Why not a whelk?

Seriously, I think maybe a quote or reference to something but unsure what exactly.

@1. dcsohl : November 23rd, 2011 at 7:57 am

What is this 7500-ly distant GRB candidate and how have we identified it as such? EDIT: I did a little research and answered my own question. It is the star Eta Carinae, which is not visible at all in most of North America (excepting Hawaii and the extreme southern tier of the continental US).

The BA used Eta Carinae as his Gamma Ray Burster example in ‘Death from the Skies’ but the one possible GRB precursor that I think he is most concerned about, the one we may have cause for slight concern over, would be WR-104.

Click on my name for link or see :

‘WR 104: A nearby gamma-ray burst? posted March 3rd, 2008 11:50 AM on this blog.

(Which by-th’-by is NOT found under either Gamma Ray Burst or WR 104 in the search box here.)

By: Thomas Siefert

Thomas Siefert — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:04:16 +0000

but if one were, say, 100 light years away, it would cook us like a whelk in a supernova.

Swiftly and with style.

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:46:31 +0000

,,,and here’s an aside. You’re better off watching no news at all, than watching Faux Snooze,,,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/fox-news-viewers-less-informed-people-fairleigh-dickinson_n_1106305.html?ref=mostpopular#s490349&title=Americas_Newsroom_9am

Gary 7

By: [COSMIC BODIES] What is WR-104? « Before Us The Stars

[COSMIC BODIES] What is WR-104? « Before Us The Stars — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:36:20 +0000

[...] Happy birthday, Swift! (blogs.discovermagazine.com) [...]

By: Georg

Georg — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:11:40 +0000

BTW, whats Swifts first name?
Jonathan?

By: dcsohl

dcsohl — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:02:28 +0000

There’s speculation that the Ordovician-Silurian extinction event was caused by a gamma ray burst about 6000 light-years away. This event saw the extinction of nearly half of all existing animal genera. A ten second burst, the scientists claim, would strip our atmosphere of half of its ozone and expose the surface to intense ultra-violet radiation for many years afterwards.

It’s important to note that this is merely the result of a “what-if” mental experiment. There is no evidence whatsoever that this actually occurred; merely that the results of a GRB 6000 ly distant would correspond roughly to what happened at the end of the Ordovician 445 million years ago.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/gammaray_extinction.html

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:54:55 +0000

About GRB,,,”Just don’t point that thing my way. It’s loaded,,,”

So, how many GRBs have been found in this galaxy? What are the precursor states for a star to form a GRB? ,,,and I wonder how many times we’ve slipped past a GRB w/o getting fried. Boy, are we Lucky, or what?

Just think of all the potential sentient species that could have survived long enough to make it to the stars, if not for those pesky GRBs. Can you imagine a species at the tech level of our ancestors(ok, MY ancestors, a mere 100 years ago), getting sprayed by a GRB? They would not even know why they and their entire eco-system were dying.

,,,they’d probably blame it on their gods,,,

Gary 7

By: RobT

RobT — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:12:17 +0000

iPhone/iPad apps? That’s pretty neat keeping up to date with SWIFT like that but would an iPhone user even understand what they are seeing? Should be supporting Android.

By: Arthur Dent

Arthur Dent — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:06:22 +0000

A whelk? But, why a whelk?

By: Other Paul

Other Paul — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:57:44 +0000

How would one modify the Drake Equation to perform the melancholy calculation for the number of civilisations wiped out by a single GRB?

I appreciate that’s a bit of a downer for a birthday celebration – but ‘Death from the Skies’ is visible to my right as I type!

By: dcsohl

dcsohl — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:57:08 +0000

1) What is this 7500-ly distant GRB candidate and how have we identified it as such? EDIT: I did a little research and answered my own question. It is the star Eta Carinae, which is not visible at all in most of North America (excepting Hawaii and the extreme southern tier of the continental US).

2) “a whelk in a supernova”

Man, I really miss Douglas Adams…