We don’t know what it was, what it was made of, or how much mass it held. It didn’t act like a supernova and wasn’t even in a galaxy, as far as we can tell. All we’re sure of is that it radiated a light spectrum we’ve never seen before, was really far away, and came out of nowhere. And now it’s gone.
From Gizmodo:
It just wasn’t there before. In fact, they don’t even know where it is exactly located because it didn’t behave like anything they know. Apparently, it can’t be closer than 130 light-years but it can be as far as 11 billion light-years away. It’s not in any known galaxy either. And they have ruled out a supernova too. It’s something that they have never encountered before. In other words: they don’t have a single clue about where or what the heck this thing is.
Just when we start to think we’re getting a handle on this universe thing, the cosmos comes along with a gentle but gleeful poke in the ribs.
And speaking of pushing the limits of human knowledge, the most famous science experiment since the Manhattan Project is lurching to life deep in the bowels of the Swiss Alps. Though there’s still lots of testing and tweaking to be done, there’s a fair chance that the Large Hadron Collider’s findings will have us rewriting all our high school physics books — and apparently only the slimmest chance it’ll destroy the Earth. A few weeks ago I wrote an explainer on this very cool project — have a look if you’re wondering what all the buzz has been about.
Story via Slashdot.
1 response so far ↓
1 Asher Vijay // Sep 15, 2008 at 11:11 pm
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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