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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday October 10 2018, @01:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the cosmic-accelerators dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Newly detected microquasar gamma-rays 'call for new ideas': Cosmic accelerator in the Milky Way could help explain more extreme events at the centers of distant galaxies

The first-ever detection of highly energetic radiation from a microquasar has astrophysicists scrambling for new theories to explain the extreme particle acceleration. A microquasar is a black hole that gobbles up debris from a nearby companion star and blasts out powerful jets of material.

"What's amazing about this discovery is that all current particle acceleration theories have difficulties explaining the observations," said Hui Li, a theorist in Los Alamos National Laboratory's Theoretical Division who served on the team. "This surely calls for new ideas on particle acceleration in microquasars and black hole systems in general."

The team's observations, described in the Oct. 4 issue of the journal Nature, strongly suggest that particle collisions at the ends of the microquasar's jets produced the powerful gamma rays. Scientists think that studying messages from this microquasar, dubbed SS 433, may offer a glimpse into more extreme events happening at the centers of distant galaxies.

A. U. Abeysekara, et. al. Very-high-energy particle acceleration powered by the jets of the microquasar SS 433. Nature, 2018; 562 (7725): 82 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0565-5


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  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:11PM (4 children)

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:11PM (#747114) Homepage

    There are competing theories on what a black hole is

    No there aren't.

    (e.g., stars or clouds of gas didn't get eaten up, or they moved in ways unexpected).

    Got a citation for this claim?

    Objects orbit black holes the same way they orbit (or crash into) anything else.

    Maybe gravity isn't the only or even the major factor in the cosmos. There are much stronger forces at play, such as those of electromagnetism;

    Oh, what a surprise, an Electric Universe nut.

    When you allow for this, then you no longer need mysterious, overwhelmingly humongous, non-nullifiable "dark matter" to explain away the holes in your theory.

    No, you just introduce a few dozen more holes that you blithely ignore because being contrarian makes you feel special (and because you don't know enough to know how wrong you are).

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:30PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:30PM (#747120)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @09:56PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10 2018, @09:56PM (#747162)

      The top comment there is great:

      I love the thunderbolt project channel. It goes against everything I learned in grade school. I watch videos at night before bed.

      That pretty much sums up the appeal of EU theory. And I do like it and find it good to watch before bed just like that poster.

      Also, they predicted Philae would bounce because the surface would be too hard for the "ice screws" and "ice harpoon" and were proven right. To me that makes them worth paying attention to. I mean, 99% of these predictions we hear about have no real life consequences but that one did. The engineers would have designed the craft to the correct specs if they hadn't been dismissed as crackpots.

      • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday October 12 2018, @08:17PM

        by wonkey_monkey (279) on Friday October 12 2018, @08:17PM (#748022) Homepage

        That top comment is more telling than you realise. People don't latch on to these nutjob theories because they make more sense, or make better predictions - they simply like to feel like they're in the smart minority. It's nothing more than contrarianism substituting for actual intelligence.

        --
        systemd is Roko's Basilisk
  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday October 10 2018, @09:20PM

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday October 10 2018, @09:20PM (#747142)

    Oh, what a surprise, an Electric Universe nut.

    Explain that electric shock I got that time I was in the Universe?

    Checkmate Atheists!!