

An exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood discovered - bsk
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-157_Chandra_Update.html

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DanI-S
Does anyone know how this compares with NASA's usual routine for announcing
cool discoveries? The internet seems to be getting all excited about this, but
if this kind of vague press conference announcement is just their standard way
of announcing a new funky-looking cloud of gas, a lot of UFO hunters are going
to be disappointed...

Edit: Not that I don't personally find funky-looking clouds of gas
fascinating, but if you google 'exceptional object' right now the top results
are all conspiracy theory websites.

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pyre
It's Nemesis.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(star)>

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Panoramix
Do you have some insider information or you made this up? I believe it's a
possibility, since Chandra is able to detect brown dwarfs.

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danteembermage
I'd say it was the two galaxy sized bubbles immediately above and below the
plane of the Milky Way that were just discovered but they used the Fermi
Gamma-Ray Telescope for those.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8125127/Giant-
space...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8125127/Giant-space-
bubbles-baffle-astronomers.html)

~~~
iwr
So what did NASA announce after all?

Edit: Apparently, this:
[http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_10-299_CHANDRA.h...](http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_10-299_CHANDRA.html)

"Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found evidence of the
youngest black hole known to exist in our cosmic neighborhood"

"The 30-year-old object is a remnant of SN 1979C, a supernova in the galaxy
M100 approximately 50 million light years from Earth."

Well, pretty underwhelming.

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snitko
_NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen
structure centred in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and
may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the centre
of our galaxy. "What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend
25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic centre," said Doug
Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who first recognised the feature. "We don't fully
understand their nature or origin..."_

Source:
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoft...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/8125431/Pictures-
of-the-day-11-November-2010.html)

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ugh
The press conference seems to be about a discovery by Chandra (X-ray), not
Fermi (Gamma-ray), so it’s probably about something different.

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jarin
My guess would be a nearby black hole.

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stcredzero
That would be bad news, not that there'd likely be any danger of being "sucked
in." That would be bad news because black holes can release large amounts of
energy very quickly. A nearby black hole would greatly increase the risk of an
event wiping out the human species or our biosphere.

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exit
think about how much tragic suffering occurs every day on this planet. think
about how much lies behind and ahead of us. it's unfortunate every moment that
humanity isn't wiped out.

~~~
jokermatt999
Think about how much transcendent joy occurs every day on this planet. Think
about how much beauty there is, how much to see, how much to experience. Every
single moment is incredible, a (for lack of a better word) miracle defying the
odds that we arose, gained intelligence, and lived long enough to think about
it.

It's all a matter of perspective. (and no, I didn't downvote you)

~~~
exit
this is a selfish appeal. think about how much profound suffering occurs every
day on this planet. now consider that people who do not exist clearly cannot
be bothered by not existing.

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iwr
Could be a brown-dwarf-sized companion to our star, a possible answer for the
relative scarcity of objects beyond 50 or so au.

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mattiask
I hope "exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood" doesn't mean "big
astereoid coming our way" ;)

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ezy
That would be an earth shattering announcement if there was one. :-)

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Vivtek
But probably not something an X-ray observatory would be announcing.

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seejay
More information URL:
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html>

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acqq
So much for what they announce as unusual:

10.26.10 "NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed an unusual galaxy
cluster that contains a bright core of relatively cool gas surrounding a
quasar called 3C 186. This is the most distant such object yet observed, and
could provide insight into the triggering of quasars and the growth of galaxy
clusters."

Stop the presses. :)

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jarin
Hmm "the most distant such object yet observed" does not sound like something
they would brand as "in our cosmic neighborhood".

~~~
acqq
I've made an argument about what wording they use about their discoveries, I
haven't claimed that quote to match the currently announced one. It's just
their latest news item on the page.

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initself
Aliens!

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guscost
I take it this means "something exceptional that is not an iPad."

