Submitted via IRC for takyon
The eruption of neighboring superstar Eta Carinae over 170 years ago is fascinating researchers and setting records for the fastest jettisoned gas from a stellar outburst.
Approximately 170 years ago, a stellar eruption sped away from our massive (and incredibly unstable) neighboring superstar Eta Carinae. Now, a team from the University of Arizona in conjunction with NASA has determined this event holds the record for the fastest jettisoned gas ever measured from a star -- without the star self-destructing.
The energy from the blast would be equivalent to that of a traditional supernova explosion, events that often leave behind only the corpse of a star. However, this double star system stayed relatively intact.
For the last seven years, University of Arizona's Nathan Smith and the Space Telescope Science Institute's Armin Rest determined how powerful the blast was by looking at echoes of light surrounding Eta Carinae.
(Score: 3, Funny) by ikanreed on Wednesday August 08 2018, @03:00PM (6 children)
Fart joke. The end.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday August 08 2018, @03:38PM (2 children)
You could have been replying to "U.S. Economy Adds 157,000 Jobs in July!" but @janrinok didn't like the title -- Sub rejected. He said it was the title. But he lives in the badly failing UK. And I think he hates to read about our great success. Absolutely hates it!!!
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday August 08 2018, @05:20PM (1 child)
1. I don't live in the UK - you are wrong.
2. Your submissions might have been accepted if you had kept them neutral and unbiased. Your adopted political persona must not affect your submissions; if it does they will be rejected. Try reading this again : https://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/Submission_guidelines [soylentnews.org].
3. We only accept a very small number of political submissions because most do not generate an intelligent discussion, and they are often only of interest to a small proportion of our community. Try putting them in your journal where you are free to publish whatever you wish with whatever bias you wish.
4.If you don't like the way I edit, feel free to join the team and then I can stand aside.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday August 08 2018, @07:18PM
No, actually maybe don't make the gimmicky political troll account an editor, even if it seems like a fair thing to do.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday August 08 2018, @05:57PM (2 children)
...fastest jettisoned gas from a stellar outburst.
Until they removed Trump's star from the Walk of Fame...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @07:15PM
The Russians had put it back and were guarding it [thehill.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @09:50PM
Old Fart joke.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 08 2018, @04:40PM (3 children)
Too bad the timescales and the complexity of the instruments make it impossible for most people to directly observe much.
The internet makes it easy to find pictures, yet seeing some of that stuff with you own eyes is truly fascinating.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday August 08 2018, @05:18PM (1 child)
I wonder if it would be possible for amateurs to set up ground telescopes with advanced adaptive optics and giant mirrors. Even though something like the Extremely Large Telescope [wikipedia.org] is downright reasonably priced for what you get: about €1.2 billion. But what could you do with $10 million?
Imagine a liquid mirror telescope [wikipedia.org], made with as large of an aperture as possible, optimized for a large field of view given that it can't be pointed at particular objects. Add the same adaptive optics being used by VLT and ELT. It probably would have to go to Chile or some other desert since you would want dry weather conditions.
For the direct observation part, a telescope could display some sort of live lightly processed feed of what is being viewed. And stuff like that already exists:
https://www.slooh.com/ [slooh.com]
https://spacetelescopelive.org/ [spacetelescopelive.org]
http://kopiko.ifa.hawaii.edu/cams/ps1.shtml [hawaii.edu] (this is just a camera viewing the sky)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 08 2018, @06:43PM
Still, my point is that seeing the actual photons which bounce off the rings of Saturn is a lot more exciting than seeing a picture, even a live one.
Our eyes are too limited, and many of the pictures we see online could never be observed first-hand by puny humans. But if there was a 1m telescope in town that you could point to Mars, Jupiter, the ISS, or Saturn, and put your eyeball to it, that would be quite the experience, one that most kids or adults never get a chance at.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday August 08 2018, @07:18PM
For the very vast majority of it, you could safely say it's actually damned cold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 08 2018, @09:51PM (2 children)
Was looking for an indicator of the actual speed, perhaps in relation to the speed of light, but I couldnt find that exactly. I did find the speed of the jettisoned gas is moving approximately 20,000,000 MPH. With a speed of light of 670,600,000 MPH the gas is moving almost 3% the speed of light. Not too shabby.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 09 2018, @12:40AM (1 child)
If it blew 170 years ago, and we're seeing it, 2700 LY away, now, then it's travelling at 16c!
Or journalists could incorporate some awareness of special relaticity in their atronomy pieces.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @12:56AM
We're seeing its light, yes, but the speed described in the article was the speed of the actual matter.