Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
21

Mysterious Entity In Neighboring Galaxy Shooting Radiowaves At Earth, But It's Cool, Probably Just A Microquasar Strangely Bereft Of X-rays

m82A mysterious new celestial entity in the nearby galaxy of M82 is beaming radiowaves toward Earth unlike any others scientists have seen before. "The new object, which appeared in May 2009, has left us scratching our heads," said Tom Muxlow, of University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory. "We've never seen anything quite like this before." The scientists, who have been sitting on this information for almost a year, don't seem to be panicking, so I guess we shouldn't either. Though the waves are headed right toward us, and are sneakily appearing to move sideways. As New Scientist reports: "Its apparent sideways velocity is four times the speed of light. Such apparent 'superluminal' motion has been seen before in high-speed jets of material squirted out by some black holes. The stuff in these jets is moving towards us at a slight angle and travelling at a fair fraction of the speed of light, and the effects of relativity produce a kind of optical illusion that makes the motion appear superluminal." (I know, I know, "high-speed jets of material squirting out of black holes…" Yeah, yeah. Did M82 have Mexican food for lunch or whatever. Grow up. This is Science.)

Some people think it might be a microquasar, a small black hole that results from the explosion of a star that starts feeding on gasses emitted from another star. But as everybody knows, microquasars usually send out lots of X-rays, and no X-rays have been detected from this thing. "So that's not right either," Muxlow said.

Maybe it's Monster Magnet. I hope so.

21 Comments / Post A Comment

El Matardillo (#586)

a small black hole that results from the explosion of a star that starts feeding on gasses emitted from another star.

This could also describe the relationship between Choire and Balk.

"Which one's the hole?" she asked teasingly, inviting Matardillo to come up with a clever way to get himself out of this one.

El Matardillo (#586)

Why, the Awl itself of course, absorbing all their hard work, distorting time and space, and sucking them relentlessly to their inevitable doom.

El Matardillo (#586)

Along with all their various gases.

Nicely done, sir!

roboloki (#1,724)

is it a bag of everybody's nuts pistachios?

Flashman (#418)

I for one salute our new radiowave overlords.

SemperBufo (#1,849)

What, we beamed all those Waltons reruns at them, and we expected them to just sit there and take it?

davidwatts (#72)

Alien podcasts of CarTalk are coming, to bore and destroy us!!!!

And this time, Click & Clack are their real names?
(I not-so-secretly love CarTalk, actually.)

NicFit (#616)

It's not Mexican food, it's what happens when you feed on gasses, and no I won't grow up.

mimithedog (#1,165)

I've been thinking about that frisbee I lost since '72.

Annie K. (#3,563)

As long as it's also bereft of gamma rays, I'm ok with it. Don't be beaming no gamma rays at me.

Art Yucko (#1,321)

V-GER. WANTS. TEH IN-FUH-MAY-SHUN.

HiredGoons (#603)

Surely tis the Rapture.

DoctorDisaster (#1,970)

Since we were just chatting about people who are in X-men that you <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negasonic_Teenage_Warhead_%28comics%29"wouldn't expect to be…

DoctorDisaster (#1,970)

Since we were just talking about people you wouldn't expect to see in X-men…

Shit, they found me! Sorry, guys, this isn't going to be pretty…

kneetoe (#1,881)

Anything that travels at both 4 times the speed of light AND a good fraction of the speed of light can only be trouble. I say we surrender.

Swass LikeMe (#1,317)

8/2 is a good fraction.

Jeff Barea (#4,298)

Well, my ride's here. It's been fun!

Post a Comment