Nyrath Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/bright-flash.html What could it be? A Bezerker destroying a civilization? An alien starship invasion force using breaking thrusters to enter our solar system? A Stargate opening? A dimensional rift allowing Cthulhu to enter our space-time continuum? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash a slower than light colony ship that had just picked up tv and radio from us and are now scard and going to their 2nd choice world Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Ooooh... great inspiration for a character's origin, or even a campaign. Good find Nyrath! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash A photon-rocket starship executing a long, slow turn, and the exhaust happened to point directly at us at one point in there. Woulda been nice if they'd got even a single spectrum in there somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash A gamma-ray burster? Ooh! Does that mean we'll all get superpowers and green skin now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundog Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash A gamma-ray burster? Ooh! Does that mean we'll all get superpowers and green skin now? No, that would mean we all die now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Ooooh... great inspiration for a character's origin' date=' or even a campaign. Good find Nyrath![/quote'] A few siblings for Photon, perhaps? And it is helpful that Nyrath keeps watching the skies for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrito Boy Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash You people are way too paranoid. It's just a reflection off the belt buckle of Orion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Woulda been nice if they'd got even a single spectrum in there somewhere. They did. WikiWakiPedia More info here and here. PS: Rep to Nyrath! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash They did. WikiWakiPedia More info here and here. PS: Rep to Nyrath! OK. The light curve suggests lensing (but the change in color over time all but rules that out), the spectrum looks more like supernova than anything else (the "absorption features" are 12,300 km/sec wide, which is SN-like) but it doesn't match any SN known; one can play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with identifying spectral lines, and if you do that you find two hydrogen lines but don't match what should be the strongest one. Hmm. Looking at one of the references in the preprint, the light curve looks almost like Zwicky's Type III supernova prototype. Not that that helps much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted January 7, 2009 Report Share Posted January 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Dr. Infamous wishes it to be known that it was not, after all, the delivery of his (overdue) supersonic telepathic mechanical penguins with laser eyes. Thank you, that is all. Dr. Infamous is a product of Basil's Twisted Imagination, Unincorporated. Also, Dr. Infamous is too bloody full of himself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted January 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash More info here. Oh, my. The spectrum shows a handful of spectral lines, but when astronomers try to trace any one of them to an element - such as magnesium, the other lines fail to match up with known elements. This means either the distance is so great that the spectrum has been red-shifted to illegibility... ... or that it is composed of unknown elements that have not yet been discovered ... ... or the object is from another space-time continuum, composed of alien elements that don't even exist here. (Basil, thank you for the rep!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash . . . I'd like to believe it is red-shifted to illegibility by being exhaust from a very, very efficient rocket . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenrisUlf Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash No' date=' that would mean we all die now.[/quote'] Now for some reason I'm thinking about green-skinned gamma-powered zombies... "Hulk LIKE brains!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyrath Posted January 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash . . . I'd like to believe it is red-shifted to illegibility by being exhaust from a very' date=' very efficient rocket . . .[/quote'] What if it is blue-shifted to illegibility? Most natural astronomical objects are red-shifted, since they are moving away from Earth, so astronomers sort of assume a red-shift when they try to decipher a spectra. If it was an un-natural astronomical object (like, say, an invading alien armada), it would be blue-shifted. Astronomers would be puzzled at the weird spectra that could not be deciphered. Or at least puzzled until the alien armada nuked Washington DC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted January 8, 2009 Report Share Posted January 8, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash What if it is blue-shifted to illegibility? Most natural astronomical objects are red-shifted, since they are moving away from Earth, so astronomers sort of assume a red-shift when they try to decipher a spectra. If it was an un-natural astronomical object (like, say, an invading alien armada), it would be blue-shifted. Astronomers would be puzzled at the weird spectra that could not be deciphered. Or at least puzzled until the alien armada nuked Washington DC. The oppositely-directed beams from active galactic nuclei are shot out at relativistic speeds, and last I heard, the favored model for the BL Lac objects is that we're looking down the throat of such a beam ... which is relativistically blueshifted. What little I remember of BL Lac spectra is reminiscent of the spectra shown in the preprint. The light curve of this thing is nothing like that of a BL Lac object, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Obviously, someone has just learned they really need to shield those thermal exhaust ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Obviously' date=' someone has just learned they really need to shield those thermal exhaust ports.[/quote'] Are they bigger than a whomp rat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Are they bigger than a whomp rat? About 2 meters, so not really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Hmm. Looking at one of the references in the preprint' date=' the light curve looks almost like Zwicky's Type III supernova prototype. Not that that helps much.[/quote'] You mean he of the infamous "neutron cores"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Are they bigger than a whomp rat? Not anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinniuint Posted January 30, 2009 Report Share Posted January 30, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Sounds almost like the birth of a new universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Universe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Sounds almost like the birth of a new universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Universe Listen; there's a hell of a good universe next door let's go The more unlikely the better E E = I C Quotes Lucius Alexander Didn't Smith create an alien that, like a palindromedary, never had to turn around, ever? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Didn't Smith create an alien that' date=' like a palindromedary, never had to turn around, ever?[/quote'] I don't know about "Doc" Smith, but Dr. Infamous is still working on the Bacandforthtrian. Though he may have to give up and settle for a llamall. Dr. Infamous, the Bacandforthtrian, and the llamall are products of Basil's Twisted Imagination, Unincarcerated, all leftovers revered. "Doc" Smith isn't, and B.T.I. takes no responsibility for any use or abuse thereof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash You mean he of the infamous "neutron cores"? As mentioned in an infamous astronomy spoof, Zwicky thought of everything, and he thought of it first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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