An exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood discovered | Hacker News Reader

An exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood discovered

nasa.gov

63 pointsbsk29 comments

Does anyone know how this compares with NASA's usual routine for announcing cool discoveries? The internet seems to be getting all excited about this, but if this kind of vague press conference announcement is just their standard way of announcing a new funky-looking cloud of gas, a lot of UFO hunters are going to be disappointed...

Edit: Not that I don't personally find funky-looking clouds of gas fascinating, but if you google 'exceptional object' right now the top results are all conspiracy theory websites.

I know I've seen a lot of NASA releases described in terms like this. "Exceptional" to astrophysicists and "exceptional" to the general public are definitely different things.

I'm sure it'll be cool from a scientific perspective, but it's definitely not going to be alien signals or anything.

The last one I saw with similar wording was for an exoplanet system with I think 4 planets, which was somewhat similar to our own and may have contained a planet less than twice the size of Earth. So to the general public by no means earth shattering.

First thing I though of was a red dwarf or similar to be the new closest known star but I don't think that's really xray based.

It's Nemesis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(star)

Do you have some insider information or you made this up? I believe it's a possibility, since Chandra is able to detect brown dwarfs.

vapor, where?

I'd say it was the two galaxy sized bubbles immediately above and below the plane of the Milky Way that were just discovered but they used the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope for those.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8125127/Giant-space...

So what did NASA announce after all?

Edit: Apparently, this: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_10-299_CHANDRA.h...

"Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found evidence of the youngest black hole known to exist in our cosmic neighborhood"

"The 30-year-old object is a remnant of SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy M100 approximately 50 million light years from Earth."

Well, pretty underwhelming.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centred in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the centre of our galaxy. "What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic centre," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who first recognised the feature. "We don't fully understand their nature or origin..."

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoft...

The press conference seems to be about a discovery by Chandra (X-ray), not Fermi (Gamma-ray), so it’s probably about something different.

My guess would be a nearby black hole.

That would be bad news, not that there'd likely be any danger of being "sucked in." That would be bad news because black holes can release large amounts of energy very quickly. A nearby black hole would greatly increase the risk of an event wiping out the human species or our biosphere.

It wouldn't be so bad because there'd be nobody left to feel sorry about it.

Of all the ways for humanity to go out, that would be one of the cooler, not with a whimper but with bang! :)

think about how much tragic suffering occurs every day on this planet. think about how much lies behind and ahead of us. it's unfortunate every moment that humanity isn't wiped out.

Think about how much transcendent joy occurs every day on this planet. Think about how much beauty there is, how much to see, how much to experience. Every single moment is incredible, a (for lack of a better word) miracle defying the odds that we arose, gained intelligence, and lived long enough to think about it.

It's all a matter of perspective. (and no, I didn't downvote you)

this is a selfish appeal. think about how much profound suffering occurs every day on this planet. now consider that people who do not exist clearly cannot be bothered by not existing.

There may be some merit to that guess; a few minutes on Google shows that all three of the panelists that are being made available to discuss this finding specialize in things like star formation and black holes (although their presence could also be spun as finding another "earthlike" extrasolar planet, if some are only there as panelists to discuss x-ray astronomy).

Jon Morse - http://science.nasa.gov/about-us/organization-and-leadership...

Kim Weaver - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Weaver

Alex Filippenko - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Filippenko

It's about the 'newest' black hole yet found. 30 years old, plus 50 million years for the light to get here.

Could be a brown-dwarf-sized companion to our star, a possible answer for the relative scarcity of objects beyond 50 or so au.

I hope "exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood" doesn't mean "big astereoid coming our way" ;)

That would be an earth shattering announcement if there was one. :-)

But probably not something an X-ray observatory would be announcing.

More information URL: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html

So much for what they announce as unusual:

10.26.10 "NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed an unusual galaxy cluster that contains a bright core of relatively cool gas surrounding a quasar called 3C 186. This is the most distant such object yet observed, and could provide insight into the triggering of quasars and the growth of galaxy clusters."

Stop the presses. :)

Hmm "the most distant such object yet observed" does not sound like something they would brand as "in our cosmic neighborhood".

I've made an argument about what wording they use about their discoveries, I haven't claimed that quote to match the currently announced one. It's just their latest news item on the page.

Aliens!

I take it this means "something exceptional that is not an iPad."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com