Hubble finds mystery object

[Moriarty]

The mystery object did not behave like any known kind of supernova. It is not even in any detectable galaxy.

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This one has the astrophysical community scratching their heads, and as one commenter in the article said, "After considering all of the above, we still don't have any idea what this thing is, but at least we tried really hard" (referencing the conclusion in the published paper, which is also linked in the article).

Sooo, having established that nobody has a clue...

<wild guess> Are we witnessing something of the dark variety? </wild guess>

[Monte314]

Very cool. Something like this could keep the astrophysicists scratching their heads for awhile.

It is quite fortuitous that this was even noticed; how many other events like this occur all the time, and go unobserved? Magnitude 21 is *way, way* down there.

[Moriarty]

Exactly! The odds of observing this thing in the first place were pretty...astronomical (buh-dum-bum). It's not too far off from the limit of Hubble's capabilities.

I think it's great that nobody knows what it is, personally. It's the first step towards greater understanding, and finding out will be the fun part.

[Purple]

Heh, I like one of the comments below the article....

"maby it was a species testing an atomic colider"

[PHS Philip]

Death Star, definitely.

I get the feeling that either someone screwed up badly, Hubble malfunctioned, or there are going to be quite a few PhDs out of this.

[tp6626]

Death Star, definitely.

I get the feeling that either someone screwed up badly, Hubble malfunctioned, or there are going to be quite a few PhDs out of this.

Nah, god did it, so lets leave it there shall we? :cheesy:

[TheLastMohican]

[wild guess] Given the strange absorption lines, I think it might be a burst of material coming through a wormhole from another universe. [/wild guess]

I get the feeling that either someone screwed up badly, Hubble malfunctioned, or there are going to be quite a few PhDs out of this.

Nobel Prize(s)! :wideeyed:

[gadjitfreek]

Maybe it's a trans-relativistic reflection of the moment the LHC forms the Earth-ending black hole, forming a reverse-time image of the cataclysm.

Probably not.

[TheLastMohican]

Maybe it's a trans-relativistic reflection of the moment the LHC forms the Earth-ending black hole, forming a reverse-time image of the cataclysm.

Probably not.

Yeah...maybe compassionate extraterrestrials are frantically beaming us images of our impending demise as (fore)seen by time-warping travelers.

[Moriarty]

There might be a bug on Hubble's windshield. Nobody mentioned that yet. It is going awfully fast. Bound to happen sooner or later.

[Undead Bonzi]

There might be a bug on Hubble's windshield. Nobody mentioned that yet. It is going awfully fast. Bound to happen sooner or later.

Yah, but no worries. Soon the Hubble will stop at a red dwarf and some homeless alien will shamble up and clean the windshield and demand payment.

[Wufnu]

That's no moon...

[Merle]

Maybe it's a trans-relativistic reflection of the moment the LHC forms the Earth-ending black hole, forming a reverse-time image of the cataclysm.

Probably not.

I love that we believe the LHC scientists when they say nothing can go wrong with Cern accelerator and then the whole thing breaks down because of faulty wiring...
and this fabulous quote was what they had to say about it:
"It is a setback, but it's not the end of the world," said James Gillies at Cern. (It was reported non-ironically... but...)

[Fireath]

I love that we believe the LHC scientists when they say nothing can go wrong with Cern accelerator and then the whole thing breaks down because of faulty wiring...
and this fabulous quote was what they had to say about it:
"It is a setback, but it's not the end of the world," said James Gillies at Cern. (It was reported non-ironically... but...)

There's already an entire thread (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) about this, but I think it's rather irrational to disprove or disqualify the validity of the theoretical works of numerous Ph.D.-educated scientists simply because some engineers screwed up a few cables.

The notion of LHC destroying the world (or even the outlying areas) is so absurd within the community of Physicists that I work with that mere mention of it usually results in hearty laughter.

The quote was pretty funny, though.

[Merle]

Yes, I was only joking... I just found the whole situation amusing.

[Sequoia]

I have no idea what it could be, but I'm content to sit back and watch the mystery unfold. :popcorn:

It's yet a wonderful reminder that there is much more we don't know about the universe than we do know.

[Mogura]

There's gotta be a Far Side cartoon in all of this...