Hubble Finds Unidentified Object in Space

In December of last year I started hearing about a REALLY strange explosion that seem to happen in the middle of no where (earlier BMU article). Well it would appear that far from fading away, astro-physicist have continued to try and understand this very strange occurance.

Here on the Gizmodo's blog, I again see a report on a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal that documents the occurance while Hubble was observing a small section of sky, when the object appeared without any warning. Showed no sign of moving into the area or leaving the area. But after 100 days of observation, the object simply disappeared.

Since the initial observation, ( On February 21, 2006, in the direction of a cluster in Bootes named CL 1432.5+3332.8) not a whole lot more has been uncovered by the scientists.

Because it just appeared and disappeared, scientists are not sure what it is and even spookier "where" it is. Because without movement or being close to something else they can't tell exactly how big it is. It is likely that it was no closer than 130 lightyears, but without more information it could have been as much as 11 billion lightyears away. It wasn't in any known galaxy and was not a super nova, because it did not match any of the spectral records of previously documented supernova. Click article title for Gizmodo release

<- sky & telescope article ->

Source of Mysterious Antimatter Found

Shaun Saunders found a neat article written by Charles Q. Choi that appeared in Live Science online. The article deals with finding a source of large amounts of anti-matter that was discovered in the late 70s but no source could be found. That may have changed. Here are some excerpts.

For decades, scientists had clues that a vast cloud of antimatter lurked in space, but they did not know where it came from. The mysterious source of this antimatter has now been discovered -- stars getting ripped apart by neutron stars and black holes. In 1978, gamma ray detectors flown on balloons detected a type of gamma ray that is known to be emitted when electrons collide with positrons -- meaning there was antimatter in space. These gamma rays apparently came from a cloud of antimatter roughly 10,000 light-years across surrounding our galaxy's core. This giant cloud shines brightly with gamma rays, with about the energy of 10,000 suns. New findings suggest that positrons originate mainly from stars getting devoured by black holes and neutron stars. As a black hole or neutron star destroys a star, tremendous amounts of radiation are released. Just as electrons and positrons emit the tell-tale gamma rays upon annihilation, so too can gamma rays combine to form electrons and positrons, providing the mechanism for the creation of the antimatter cloud.

Click here for complete article

Intergalactic Explosion Shocks Astronomers

Astronomers have discovered a cosmic explosion that seems to have come from the middle of nowhere -- thousands of light-years from the nearest galaxy-sized collection of stars, gas, and dust. This "shot in the dark" is surprising because the type of explosion, a long-duration gamma-ray burst, is thought to be powered by the death of a massive star.

Complete article

(hummmmm so it was an explosion big enough to indicate a supermassive star but there never was any star there.... I hear the trekkies now.... the antimatter containment field collapsed in one of the nacelles of a FTL cruiser. hey, works for me!)

in the photo A recent galaxy collision produced the long tail in the Tadpole Galaxy. If GRB 070125 exploded in a similar tail, only Hubble could detect the tail. (Credit: Credit: NASA)

UK uncover more secrets of the gamma ray burst

New observations of one of the largest and most violent explosions in the universe have provided valuable to researchers seeking to understand the physics of Gamma Ray Bursts. Scientists at the Liverpool John Moores University were able to begin observing the burst just 203 seconds after it had begun, thanks to the early warning given by NASA's Swift satellite. Scientists used the Liverpool Telescope on the island of La Palma and its new polarimeter, RINGO, to perform the measurement.

Gamma Ray Bursts are very short lived, but incredibly powerful explosions, so bright that we can see them as far back as the earliest five percent of the universe's life time. It is thought that a star must collapse, or two stars must collide to produce one, so their presence is seen as good evidence of star formation. This is important because it gives us an idea of when stars began forming, and what the universe must have been like, billions of years ago.

But because they are so brief - lasting from a few seconds to maybe a few minutes - very little in known about them. The launch of the Swift satellite is changing all that because it sets in motion a cascade of observations in space and on the ground the moment it detects a blast.

This latest explosion has revealed a huge amount of detail about the polarisation of the "optical afterglow", the burst of light emitted in the blast that is thought to be caused by ejected material impacting the gas surrounding the dying star.

Until now, the composition of the ejected material has remained a mystery and, in particular the importance of magnetic fields has been hotly debated by GRB scientists. Either way, the early optical glow contains important clues for both these areas of research.