Astronomers detect mystery flash

[Nyrath]

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/bright-flash.html

What could it be?

A Bezerker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker_(Saberhagen)) destroying a civilization?
An alien starship invasion force using breaking thrusters to enter our solar system?
A Stargate opening?
A dimensional rift allowing Cthulhu to enter our space-time continuum?

[Beast]

a slower than light colony ship that had just picked up tv and radio from us and are now scard and going to their 2nd choice world

[Steve Long]

Ooooh... great inspiration for a character's origin, or even a campaign. Good find Nyrath!

[Cancer]

A photon-rocket starship executing a long, slow turn, and the exhaust happened to point directly at us at one point in there.

Woulda been nice if they'd got even a single spectrum in there somewhere. :(

[FenrisUlf]

A gamma-ray burster?

Ooh! Does that mean we'll all get superpowers and green skin now?

[Sundog]

A gamma-ray burster?

Ooh! Does that mean we'll all get superpowers and green skin now?


No, that would mean we all die now.

[Lord Liaden]

Ooooh... great inspiration for a character's origin, or even a campaign. Good find Nyrath!

A few siblings for Photon, perhaps? :sneaky:

And it is helpful that Nyrath keeps watching the skies for us. :fear:

[Burrito Boy]

You people are way too paranoid. It's just a reflection off the belt buckle of Orion.

[Basil]

Woulda been nice if they'd got even a single spectrum in there somewhere. :(

They did. WikiWakiPedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCP_06F6)

More info here (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9360-enigmatic-object-baffles-supernova-team.html) and here (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14738).


PS: Rep to Nyrath! :D

[Cancer]

They did. WikiWakiPedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCP_06F6)

More info here (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9360-enigmatic-object-baffles-supernova-team.html) and here (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14738).


PS: Rep to Nyrath! :D

OK. The light curve suggests lensing (but the change in color over time all but rules that out), the spectrum looks more like supernova than anything else (the "absorption features" are 12,300 km/sec wide, which is SN-like) but it doesn't match any SN known; one can play pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with identifying spectral lines, and if you do that you find two hydrogen lines but don't match what should be the strongest one.

Hmm. Looking at one of the references in the preprint, the light curve looks almost like Zwicky's Type III supernova prototype. Not that that helps much.

[Basil]

Dr. Infamous wishes it to be known that it was not, after all, the delivery of his (overdue) supersonic telepathic mechanical penguins with laser eyes.

Thank you, that is all.

Dr. Infamous is a product of Basil's Twisted Imagination, Unincorporated. Also, Dr. Infamous is too bloody full of himself.

[Nyrath]

More info here (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14738).

Oh, my.


The spectrum shows a handful of spectral lines, but when astronomers try to trace any one of them to an element - such as magnesium, the other lines fail to match up with known elements.

This means either the distance is so great that the spectrum has been red-shifted to illegibility...

... or that it is composed of unknown elements that have not yet been discovered ...

... or the object is from another space-time continuum, composed of alien elements that don't even exist here.


(Basil, thank you for the rep!)

[L. Marcus]

. . . I'd like to believe it is red-shifted to illegibility by being exhaust from a very, very efficient rocket . . .

[FenrisUlf]

No, that would mean we all die now.

Now for some reason I'm thinking about green-skinned gamma-powered zombies... "Hulk LIKE brains!"

[Nyrath]

. . . I'd like to believe it is red-shifted to illegibility by being exhaust from a very, very efficient rocket . . .
What if it is blue-shifted to illegibility?

Most natural astronomical objects are red-shifted, since they are moving away from Earth, so astronomers sort of assume a red-shift when they try to decipher a spectra.

If it was an un-natural astronomical object (like, say, an invading alien armada), it would be blue-shifted. Astronomers would be puzzled at the weird spectra that could not be deciphered. Or at least puzzled until the alien armada nuked Washington DC.

[Cancer]

What if it is blue-shifted to illegibility?

Most natural astronomical objects are red-shifted, since they are moving away from Earth, so astronomers sort of assume a red-shift when they try to decipher a spectra.

If it was an un-natural astronomical object (like, say, an invading alien armada), it would be blue-shifted. Astronomers would be puzzled at the weird spectra that could not be deciphered. Or at least puzzled until the alien armada nuked Washington DC.

The oppositely-directed beams from active galactic nuclei are shot out at relativistic speeds, and last I heard, the favored model for the BL Lac objects is that we're looking down the throat of such a beam ... which is relativistically blueshifted. What little I remember of BL Lac spectra is reminiscent of the spectra shown in the preprint.

The light curve of this thing is nothing like that of a BL Lac object, though.

[Susano]

Obviously, someone has just learned they really need to shield those thermal exhaust ports.

[Basil]

Obviously, someone has just learned they really need to shield those thermal exhaust ports.

Are they bigger than a whomp rat?

[Susano]

Are they bigger than a whomp rat?

About 2 meters, so not really.

[Dr. Anomaly]

Hmm. Looking at one of the references in the preprint, the light curve looks almost like Zwicky's Type III supernova prototype. Not that that helps much.
You mean he of the infamous "neutron cores"?

[Dr. Anomaly]

Are they bigger than a whomp rat?
Not anymore.

[Cinniuint]

Sounds almost like the birth of a new universe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Universe

[Lucius]

Sounds almost like the birth of a new universe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Universe



Listen; there's a hell of a good universe next door
let's go




The more unlikely the better




E E = I C Quotes


Lucius Alexander

Didn't Smith create an alien that, like a palindromedary, never had to turn around, ever?

[Basil]

Didn't Smith create an alien that, like a palindromedary, never had to turn around, ever?
I don't know about "Doc" Smith, but Dr. Infamous is still working on the Bacandforthtrian. Though he may have to give up and settle for a llamall.


Dr. Infamous, the Bacandforthtrian, and the llamall are products of Basil's Twisted Imagination, Unincarcerated, all leftovers revered. "Doc" Smith isn't, and B.T.I. takes no responsibility for any use or abuse thereof.

[Cancer]

You mean he of the infamous "neutron cores"?

As mentioned in an infamous astronomy spoof, Zwicky thought of everything, and he thought of it first.

[Nyrath]

Didn't Smith create an alien that, like a palindromedary, never had to turn around, ever?
If you are talking about E.E."Doc" Smith, there was the Zabriskan Fontema from FIRST LENSMAN.

[Lucius]

If you are talking about E.E."Doc" Smith, there was the Zabriskan Fontema from FIRST LENSMAN.

Actually, I think it was from The Vortex Blasters....

Lucius Alexander

Palindromedary Enterprises