Huge 'star-quake' rocks Milky Way

[DoYouEverWonder]

18 February, 2005, 19:10 GMT

Astronomers say they have been stunned by the amount of energy released in a star explosion on the far side of our galaxy, 50,000 light-years away.

The flash of radiation on 27 December was so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's atmosphere.

The blast occurred on the surface of an exotic kind of star - a super-magnetic neutron star called SGR 1806-20.

If the explosion had been within just 10 light-years, Earth could have suffered a mass extinction, it is said.

"We figure that it's probably the biggest explosion observed by humans within our galaxy since Johannes Kepler saw his supernova in 1604," Dr Rob Fender, of Southampton University, UK, told the BBC News website.

One calculation has the giant flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashing about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4278005.stm

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Stuff like this reminds me how fragile life on Earth is...

With the billions of random events happening in the universe each day, it only a matter of time before one of those events snuff us out.

Good Morning, DU!:hi:

[Kagemusha]

2. Uh no, because we're too far from that other stuff.

Nothing likely to snuff us out before the sun starts going wacky in a few billion years.

[Cooley Hurd]

11. Oh sure... that's what the dinosaurs said...

;):hi:

[Swede]

29. 50,000 years ago in OUR galaxy.

What makes you think it can't happen here?

[jus_the_facts]

3. The DATE this happened is what's most interesting....

.....the tsunami happened that very same week in December! :think:

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. I believe the tsunami happened on Dec 25th

two days before this event was picked up on the satellite.

[jus_the_facts]

6. STILL...I'd say the coincidence is too uncanny to ignore....

....only 2 days is too close not to wonder if it could be related. :shrug:


http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/bright_flash_050218.html

[SomewhereOutThere424]

37. Not to mention

The mass of hurricanes, valcanic erruptions, earthquakes, which had been admitted to be abnormally high in 2004. Let alone people's strange opinion that bush is a uniter and not a devider ;)

Plus, it said it was able to light up (in my opinion effect) the earth's atmosphere, the ozone layer. REALLY makes you think we should reconsider pumping it with even more holes than it already has. Don't want it fragile if it were just a few lightyears closer to that kind of thing.

[Bzzzz]

54. I'd say...

the Tsunami was triggered by the nearby underwater blasting for oil.

[malaise]

47. Tsunami was December 26 n/t

[Retired AF Dem]

5. The star went up 50,000 years ago

didnt happen on the same date. :)

[jus_the_facts]

7. I realize that....but the effect of it DID in fact hit our atmosphere....

....that very same week regardless.


http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/bright_flash_050218.html

[tkmorris]

12. Don't think so meself

Let's lay out the timeline.

50,000 years ago an event occurs on the other side of the Milky Way.

In December, we observe the event (that is to say, we observe the light from the event, which has been travelling at light speed , for 50,000 years).

But two days before that something occurs on earth and you speculate a relation? I don't think so.

In order for anything relating to this long ago event to have caused the tsunami it would have had to travel accross 50,000 light years of space, just as that light did, but somehow arrive two days early. So we have some energy effect travelling an almost infinitesimal amout faster than the speed of light.

As far as I know the only widely accepted force that acts faster than light across such distances is the gravitational force. Which appears to be instantaneous. If there is any actual relationship between the two events as you suggest it would turn modern physics upside-down.

[jus_the_facts]

13. Well......

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/bright_flash_050218.html


Solar storms also alter the shape of Earth's ionosphere, a region of the atmosphere 50 miles (80 kilometers) up where gas is so thin that electrons can be stripped from atoms and molecules -- they are ionized -- and roam free for short periods. Fluctuations in solar radiation cause the ionosphere to expand and contract.

"The gamma rays hit the ionosphere and created more ionization, briefly expanding the ionosphere," said Neil Gehrels, lead scientist for NASA's gamma-ray watching Swift observatory.

.....we've currently been experiencing an anomoly with the NORMAL sun cycles...which scientists are baffled by as well...this event...with the added CME's we've been bombarded by as of late...AND the added deterioration of our atmosphere from CFC's...there should be much more study to see if there could be a connection...IMHO!


Several readers wondered if the magnetar blast could be related to the December tsunami. ****Scientists have made no such connection.**** The blast affected Earth's ionosphere, which is routinely affected to a greater extent by changes in solar activity.

....so just because they OBSERVED this a couple days AFTER doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't happening before they actually discovered it. :shrug:

[Dragonfly]

14. The connection between the...

South Asian tsunami on 12/26 and astronomers spotting this "starquake" the next day is at least an awesome display of wondrous goings-on daily in our gargantuan universe.

I marveled at this wild occurence yesterday. It is great to know that others are paying attention to dramatic events unfolding in front of our eyes on a daily basis.

Thanks for focusing on the exciting aspects of this discovery.

[jus_the_facts]

15. Just paying attention to the *bigger picture*....

.....can't help but speculate on it all...especially since it all involves the very same subject...the effects on our depleted atmosphere and magnesphere and what that can mean to our planet...just makes me extremely curious as to possible connections?! :hi:

[Jamastiene]

18. I believe everything

that happens is connected too. What was that thing some smart guy said back when there were still smart guys? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Even earthquakes below sea level don't just happen overnight. It takes time. It's possible they are connected.

[schrodingers_cat]

45. Like ripples.....

in an immense pool.........

[brentspeak]

26. It briefly affected the earth's ionosphere

Somewhere high above Earth's surface, a lot of molecules got ionized. Same kind of thing happens when you add table salt to a pot of boiling water, or when you switch on the ignition to your car, or when you wash your hands with a bar of soap. Those events happen hundreds of millions of times a day on earth's surface -- but no earthquakes result from them.

[jus_the_facts]

28. these phenomena do indeed have an effect on the earth and environment...

http://www.eiscat.com/raw/regions.html

Arctic and Antarctic regions are therefore very good places from which to observe the interactions between the solar wind and the magnetosphere, auroral ionosphere and upper atmosphere.
Other phenomena observed in the upper atmosphere, such as waves and tides, originate in the lower thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere and troposphere. The high latitude ionosphere is also affected by all these processes as well as by those related to the magnetosphere.

A particularly suitable site was selected for the EISCAT radars, which are located in the auroral zone of Northern Europe to study these processes and their effects on the Earth's environment.


http://www.sprl.umich.edu/MIST/gem_spw.html

Another important evolution of the proposed approach is a linkage with the newly developing testbed prototype - Space Weather Aeronomical Responses Models (SWARM) at the University of Michigan. The SWARM testbed prototype will be closely tied with the Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC) providing an internationally networked collaboration laboratory (a "collaboratory") in which computing and communication technology are combined to allow geographically distributed scientists to work together (see companion presentation on UARC).


http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_1003429.htm

Frey's team studied a collision between the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field that occurred in 2002.

During the study, IMAGE revealed an area of heavy particles called ions almost the size of California hitting the ionosphere above the Arctic region: "This aurora, energetic enough to power 75,000 homes, was different from the visible aurora known as the Northern and Southern lights," NASA said.

....my uneducated theory is that this added ENERGY could indeed affect our planet. :shrug:

[EST]

21. Uhhh...

Could you post, please, a reference wrerein I can refresh my recollection of gravity acting FTL? My understanding was that the only thing that might be construed (mis) as being faster than the universal speed limit has to do with the expansion of space (reality,) which places some objects beyond the Hubble limit. Gravity, at least so I thought, at larger than planck distances, results from the curvature of space, as a consequence of mass. Thanks, in advance, for your assistance.

[Toots]

56. This actually happened thousands of years ago

We are just now witnessing the event but it took palce over fifty thousand years ago.:shrug:

[Selatius]

8. I wonder how many other worlds were damaged but not destroyed by this

If it's enough to cause massive extinctions on planets within 10 light years, I wonder how many more would be heavily damaged outside 10 light years. I figure that there must be alien lifeforms out there. I wonder if any alien civilizations were ended by this event.

[chenGOD]

22. Umm one thing that everyone's overlooking here...

The star going supernova to cause this would be casuing some major damge to the area beforehand.

[steely]

30. Same question came to me, who/what/where else was affected?

When we get better at looking for life on other worlds, would we be wasting our time looking in those directions? I think of SETI, and oh, what's the name of the Scientist who came up with the (math) law/rule that described what the chance for life and inhabitable planets could be - (I used to remember up until about the 27th of December, but my memory got wiped - ha ha). He worked with Carl Sagan, and I think played a major role in establishing SETI. The law bears his name.

[chenGOD]

34. Are you thinking of the Drake equation?

It's not a law, but it is an equation.

Kind of a vague one, lots of assumptions made in it, but it's still kind of useful.

[steely]

39. Yep, Thanks

I should have known not to refer to it as a law.

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

35. The Drake Equation

http://www.activemind.com/Mysterious/Topics/SETI/drake_equation.html


Thank you, Carl

[steely]

40. Thanks ITPS

[SomewhereOutThere424]

38. Who knows...

If they were more technologically advanced, or evolved differently than our carbon system, perhaps they found a way to avert it? Perhaps this type of thing only makes planets go extinct in which they found no real way to deal with the REAL problems we face (survival, on an interstellar or stellar scale).

Kind of makes it look like a real 'global test' if you ask me, and makes all of this silly bickering and quarreling the human race does look quite silly...

[Scooter24]

9. awesome stuff to read..

10 light years? Wow...considering that it's 50,000 light years away, we are literally on the razor edge of that.

It's both fascinating and scary :)

[brentspeak]

25. Well, 50,000 light years is pretty far away

So we're pretty safe.

[jus_the_facts]

10. here's another link on the subject........

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/bright_flash_050218.html

[trof]

16. Magnetic field of neutron star: WOW!

Strong enough to strip the info from a credit card at half the distance from here to the moon.
My fillings hurt.

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. I think your filings hurting

would be the least of your worries. Has a matter of fact, they might be the only things left of you in that environment.

Now tell me again why Bush and the fundies don't want to fund the Hubble Telescope anymore?

[Briar]

19. Good question

Bush wants to destroy the Hubble because every picture it takes exposes the inadequacy of the Bible account of Creation if read literally.

[EST]

23. Interesting explanation.

[Briar]

27. It's hard to state God made heaven and earth 6000 or so years ago

when constantly presented with pictures made with light which has taken thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of years to reach us!

[EST]

52. Yeah, I so well recall, when , at the age of about ten,

I was becoming increasingly troubled by the unscratchable itch. My wingy father's suggestion that Dog had, on purpose, constructed the hills with the ancient bones already installed in order to mislead one overly curious ten-year-old just did not prove satisfying. The notion that it was necessary to test the "faith" of the weak and that would, somehow, improve the quality of that faith just proved to me that I did NOT want any sort of close relationship with anyone who used the same sort of lies and deception that I would get the crap beat out of me for even considering. He seemed to derive quite a lot of comfort from his rather "holey" reasoning and I envied him his obvious comfort and attachment, thus being drawn into another eight or nine years of intellectual self-immolation before throwing the whole shebang over as as a bad bet. Occam's razor turns into a lead pipe.

The real, actual "oldest profession," although resembling it in some ways, just can't deliver the honest value of prostitution. Seems a lot more like Bush's grasp of economic theory. Hope the toes I might step on are attached to a lively sense of irony...

[lovuian]

36. I agree and who wants people to realize we aren't alone!!!

that just blows away the fundamentalists!!!

[emad]

20. Times:Starquake that left Earth 49,990 light years from disaster

By Nigel Hawkes


AN EXPLOSION that lit up the sky just after Christmas was the biggest bang in the Galaxy for 400 years. Astronomers around the world have described it as unprecedented.

A tiny neutron star suddenly erupted, releasing a huge amount of energy in a single burst, most of it in X-rays and gamma rays. Had the event occurred within ten light years of Earth, the radiation could have destroyed the atmosphere and eliminated life. Fortunately it was 50,000 light years away.

Rob Fender, an astronomer from Southampton University, said: “We have observed an object only 20 kilometres across, on the other side of our Galaxy, releasing more energy in a tenth of a second than the Sun does in 100,000 years. It was the biggest explosion in our Galaxy since Kepler observed his supernova in 1604.”

The object that caused the flare was a magnetar, a tiny star made up of matter collapsed to a huge density, and possessing a powerful magnetic field. It is called SGR 1806-20, the SGR standing for soft gamma repeater — a class of objects that periodically flare up and release bursts of gamma rays.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1490246,00.html

[Deja Q]

24. So when will a star that's 10 light years from us go boom?

:shrug:

[LiberallyInclined]

32. well...there are only 11 of them to choose from- not counting our sun.

so it might be a while.

http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/nearest.html

[kineneb]

31. Space is big, really big

(thank you Douglas Adams, RIP) The wonders of the universe always amaze me. Space is truely big. Those with tiny minds who would have everyone believe in an ancient creation myth and never look beyond the small planet on which we live. Occurances like this are why we should never give up the enquiry into the universe. To understand the small picture, we need information on the big picture.

And to all the petty theocrats out there: "Keep banging those rocks together." (More D. Adams)

[Reverend Smoothfield]

44. you should see my genitals n/t

[EST]

53. Would that illustrate the existence of a universal

sense of humor or cosmic shock and awe. And which one is awe?

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Tinoire]

41. Wow. Interesting, informative thread. Thanks! n/t

[Fed Up]

42. Jerry Falwell wants to know

how could the gamma rays from this star quake have been flying through space for 50,000 years? After all, Jesus created the universe only 6,000 years ago. Maybe this thing happened 44,000 years before anything existed. OK. sounds good, Jerry.
------

By the way, it's just as well this was not a flashy (visible) supernova, because it happened in Sagittarius, a constellation that is not in the night sky in December, so the wow factor would have been diminished.

But this whole story is truly amazing. First thing like it since 1604.

[MileHiStealth]

49. Star Quakes, like Dinosaurs, test our faith ...

[MileHiStealth]

50. Star Quakes, like Dinosaurs, test our faith ...

[AngryAmish]

43. Similar thing happened about tens years ago to earth

The year 1994: From out of space comes a runaway
planet, hurtling between the Earth and the Moon,
unleashing cosmic destruction. Man's civilization is
cast in ruin.

Two thousand years later, Earth is reborn...

A strange new world rises from the old: a world of
savagery, super science, and sorcery. But one man
bursts his bonds to fight for justice! With his companions
Ookla the Mok and Princess Ariel, he pits his strength,
his courage, and his fabulous Sunsword against the
forces of evil.

He is Thundarr, the Barbarian!

[schrodingers_cat]

46. And his pony pal...

Mork from Ork!

[catzies]

48. I, for one, welcome our new super-magnetic neutron star overlords

;) obvious

[Baclava]

51. This better not mess up my FedEx shipment...

I got important chit coming...

[ausiedownunderground]

55. Was this on American MSM????

This never really happened. And if it did who cares. Currently all the "Rest of the "World" cares about is the destruction of "Mother Earth" at the hands of "AMERICANS". You have to stop the "Bush Gang"!
Please!! Pretty Please!!! If you Democrats don't we will! Full support for everything Anti-US is not far from what you people think! You get rid of "Bushco" we'll stop not "Buying" your stuff!!