NASA to Announce Success of Long Galactic Hunt

[jus_the_facts]

Source: NASA Newsroom

May 7, 2008

WASHINGTON -- NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations.

For information about NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory on the Web, visit:


http://www.nasa.gov/chandra


Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/may/HQ_M08089_Chandra_Advisory.html

[mike_c]

1. Bush's brain has been discovered at last....

The search has been underway for decades.

[Sailing]

22. Absolutely...

A tiny particle of pre-animate matter can be awfully difficult to find. :D

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Well, that's mysterious

I wish they'd give us a hint.

[htuttle]

5. Indeed, coming up with a blank myself

They've narrowed down the list of possibilities by saying, "in our galaxy" and 'last 50 years', but I don't have many guesses.

Maybe a star in a particular state of birth or death?

:shrug:

[DavidDvorkin]

11. I'd have guessed "direct visual observation of ... "

But the 50 years gets in the way. Not a black hole or a planetary disk. The disk of a star?

[Hugin]

18. Since it's X-ray... My guess is the big Black Hole at the center of the Galaxy.

Or maybe the bottom of the Credit Crisis. My, but, these are uncertain times. ;)

[Barrett808]

17. Black hole collision? Neutron star collision? Something high-energy... n/t

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. they found Clinton's path to the nomination

it was floating out there somewhere.

[Auggie]

4. Jimmy Hoffa? No, that wasn't 50 years ago.

[tridim]

6. Could this be our Sun's binary companion?

That would be very cool.

[Barrett808]

14. Indeed, but I wouldn't expect an observation from Chandra to find it... n/t

[Barrett808]

15. Chandra implies some high-energy event, and ground-based observations imply visible light...

...plus something we've been seeking for 50 years.

Pretty hard to put all that together. I'd guess a detection of quantum black holes exploding, but that's more like a 30-years' search.

:shrug:

[Juan_de_la_Dem]

7. Did we lose an exploratory craft 50 years ago?

[WillParkinson]

9. It's Veejer!

From Star Trek: The Movie.

[El Supremo]

10. Or it could be Shaka-Ri.

From the worst Star Trek movie.

[Juan_de_la_Dem]

27. lol

[Submariner]

8. NASA found out that Earth is in the Twilight Zone

[villager]

19. I wish I could rec this reply!

Not that I'm not enjoying the entire thread... ! ;-)

[TechBear_Seattle]

36. Beautiful!! n/t

[bbinacan]

12. Life elsewhere? n/t

[FreepFryer]

13. 'Nemesis'?

Nemesis is a hypothetical red dwarf star or brown dwarf, orbiting the Sun at a distance of about 50,000 to 100,000 AU, somewhat beyond the Oort cloud. The existence of this star was postulated in an attempt to explain an inferred periodicity in the rate of biological extinction in the geological record.

If Nemesis exists, it may be detected by the planned Pan-STARRS or LSST astronomical surveys, or similar future projects. If Nemesis is a brown dwarf, as proposed by Dr. Dan Whitmire and Albert A. Jackson IV, then the upcoming WISE mission (scheduled for June 2009) should easily find it.

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

as soon as a repeated infrared all-sky survey will reach a positional sensitivity of an arcsecond, even a dim companion to the Sun can be discovered because of its lack of proper motion.

http://www.worldtopix.com/nemesis.html

[JackRiddler]

42. o shit!

better not be...

[Thor_MN]

16. Dangnabit!!! This was a crappy day and I didn't need another puzzle...

If we have been searching for 50 freaking years, why did they have to tease a week ahead of time? Couldn't they have waited 7 more days?

Thomas Keith Glennan's car keys?

[mcollier]

20. Could it be Osama bin Forgotten

HHHHMMMMM!

[canucksawbones]

21. dark matter

proof of dark matter is my guess

[Hugin]

23. Pretty good guess, I'd say.

:thumbsup:

[nebenaube]

25. now that I see his post... you both are probably correct n/t

[dnbn]

35. Dark matter gas NOT been hunted for more than 50 years.

[Barrett808]

39. Welcome to DU, dnbn

And no need to shout. :)

The search for missing mass has been going on since the 1930s, so we might fairly call that a 50+ year hunt.

[JackRiddler]

41. Dark matter's not strictly "an object"

And I doubt they'd do this PR build-up to tell us they found a sufficient density of dust or some such to explain the constitution of the galaxy through gravitation alone (as currently understood).

Nah. They gotta have something sexy and singular to show, so since it's not a planetoid (or they wouldn't say galaxy), it's the black hole at the center of the galaxy.

[nebenaube]

24. or it's got something to do with a black hole...

That's the type of research Chandra does. Perhaps the Maya were right and we are currently crossing over the event horizon. So, we can see it now... :sarcasm:

[TheWraith]

26. If we were crossing the event horizon, we'd long since be dead. nt

[darue]

29. ... can we be so sure we're not? n/t

[TheWraith]

31. This is why physics versus philosophy is a slippery slope. nt

[Fumesucker]

53. Not so..

If the black hole is sufficiently large, crossing the event horizon would be an unremarkable event.

[dysfunctional press]

32. what if black holes don't really exist naturally...

and only come about when a civilization advances to the point of doing experiments in particle technology/theoretical physics and end up creating one in a lab, and it gets away from them...? :shrug:

[Hatalles]

28. NASA: Image of Chandra X-Ray "object" released; complete findings to be public on 5/14

[dysfunctional press]

30. that looks like a long-range imperial probe droid...

vader's coming...

[lapfog_1]

33. Pretty sure Vader is already here and has been for some time now.

[Barrett808]

38. "It's a good bet the Empire knows we're here."

[darue]

57. no worries, Hillary's made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever. n/t

[Zhade]

70. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Niiiiice.

[CRF450]

44. Now this is news!

Makes ya wonder if that in fact is a sign of ET life, but where was it seen?

[dysfunctional press]

49. in the hoth system...

in 'the empire strikes back'.
wookiepedia is your friend.

[NM Independent]

50. Is that really the image?

Or are you just yanking our collective chain?

That certainly isn't nature made.


I'm thinking that it's probably black hole related. A rogue black hole would be cool, but if one comes through our part of the galaxy we'll be in trouble.

[DavidDvorkin]

51. It's the Flying Spaghetti Monster

A joke.

[bluebellbaby]

34. I read somewhere that they were looking for another planet...and not a large asteroid

and supposedly the gravitational orbits of our solar system are not completely explained by the current known planets...that there has to be another object...pulling or affecting us...just a thought to add to all the guesses...oh...and if they did find this planet it's orbit would be almost perpendicular to the rest of the solar system and it would take about 26,000 years to complete one orbit...or so I heard...

[Bill McBlueState]

37. It's not in our solar system

Since it's a Chandra (read, X-ray) discovery, it's got to be something that's emitting a lot of X-rays. So it's not going to be a stellar companion to the Sun, like "Nemesis," or a new planet.

I suspect it's going to have something to do with black holes. Maybe a black hole - neutron star binary? That would be pretty sweet.

[doodadem]

40. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe???

[alfredo]

43. Car 54 has been found

[daleo]

45. Hunting for 50 years ==> 1958

So it is something that has been theorized to exist since 1958 (approximately). I think there is good evidence already for black holes, neutron stars and the like. Dark energy is a fairly new idea, so anything like that wouldn't fit the 50 year clue.

Maybe a super-massive black hole at the center of the galaxy?

[DavidDvorkin]

46. The suspense is causing relativistic effects!

Every day is going more slowly.

[indio55555]

47. Great.

I hope George doesn't start a war with them...:eyes:

[haktar]

48. I like the Bush's brain idea, but seriously,

you can't find anything that doesn't exist.
I can imagine only one galactic thing, searched for over 50 years: A population III star.
(for you astronomically challenged ;-) a population III star is the first star type in the universe, consisting only of hydrogen, helium and traces of lithium (or metallicity 0!) ).
But i admit, this would have huge consequences. A low mass population III star with a lifetime long enough to still exist, shouldn't exist at all, all existing knowledge points to population III stars have to be huge and therefore only have a very short lifetime of only a few million years and shouldn't exist anymore. Also a low mass population III star shouldn't be discovered with Chandra, because if it still exists, it should be in spectral class M (or at least K) and undetectable with Chandra.
So my guess is: in the outer regions of our Milky Way a hydrogen cloud not enriched with heavier material has recently collapsed due to its own gravity to form an O-type population III star.

Ok. i really don't believe it, if this really turns out to be true, i will need major surgery to fix my jaws that simply dropped to the ground in a Will E Coyote style :-) , but it's the only explanation i have right now for Nasa's unusual delay of the announcement of it's findings.

[lovuian]

52. PLANET X Niberu they have been searching for it

I bet this is it

Kobe University made the calculations and said we would find it in the next 5 to 10 years
and I bet this is the announcement

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PGeijFsXnZk

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qul0f8P6T3U

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xn_gvTNusCI

I bet this could be it

or it could be other goodies

I'm expecting to have them find it now that they know where to look

[Fumesucker]

54. The black hole at the galactic center was found several years ago.

Indeed, the orbits of stars around the black hole have been tracked.

[Bill McBlueState]

58. that's one amazing animation

30 years ago, who would have imagined that we'd be able to watch stars orbit a huge black hole at the center of the Galaxy?

[Fumesucker]

60. Ummm.. Someone like me who has been reading SF for fifty years?

I don't find this at all surprising.. Exhilarating for sure, but not surprising..

I read my first SF book in 1957 and was hooked for life.. I've read all of the classic authors from Asimov to Zelazny and have had a keen interest in science ever since I can remember.

[Indenturedebtor]

55. My vote is darkmatter n/t

[skoalyman]

56. Chaney's death star

:shrug:

[Hosnon]

59. Does anyone have a link to an astronomy-based forum where people with a bit more

knowledge in the field are discussing this?

[Bill McBlueState]

61. good question; I'd be interested, too n/t

[SpikeTss]

63. You might want to have a look at this:

http://www.bautforum.com/astronomy/73842-nasa-announce-success-long-galactic-hunt.html

It's not unusual that NASA announces findings in advance, so it might be a significant discovery, but it does not have to be something revolutionary.

[lovuian]

65. Nemesis or Planet X or Niberu whatever you want to call it

I think this is the discovery Chandra deals with XRay data

Planet X has always been thought of a a possible brown dwarf

Kobe University's mathematical calculations said its there and would be found in 5-10 years

Many have always thought it was there but could not be seen
Kobe's calculations proved we were looking in the wrong direction that the eliptical orbit was different

if its not Planet X then anything

but i can understand withholding the Planet X News because then it opens a whole different theory
many naysayers are in for a rude awakening

[Barrett808]

62. Chandra activity for 2008:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/reports.html

There 422 total observations.

There were:

3 observations of Cyg X-1/X-2 (black-hole candidate)
4 observations of Sgr A* (central black hole)
6 observations of UGC 4203 (Seyfert galaxy)
10 observations of Carina South Pillars (star birth region)
11 observations of H 1743-322 (black-hole candidate)

For what it's worth.

[galledgoblin]

64. no idea what it will be...

bound to be pretty fricking cool though

[Bill McBlueState]

66. We'll find out today

There are a few legitimate predictions in this thread; let's see if anyone was right!

[jus_the_facts]

67. I was just about to kick this back up.....

...you beat me to it!! Should be interesting! :hi:

[borelord]

68. link

listen live here: http://www.nasa.gov/news/media/newsaudio/index.html

[jus_the_facts]

69. A supernova close to the galactic center.....

*snip*


The expanding remains of a supernova explosion in the Milky Way are shown in this composite image, on the left, of the supernova remnant G1.9+0.3. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory image obtained in early 2007 is shown in orange and the radio image from NRAO's Very Large Array (VLA) from 1985 is in blue. The difference in size between the two images gives clear evidence for expansion, allowing the time since the original supernova explosion (about 140 years) to be estimated.

This makes the original explosion the most recent supernova in the Galaxy, as measured in Earth's time-frame (referring to when events are observable at Earth). Equivalently, this is the youngest known supernova remnant in the Galaxy (140 years old), easily beating the previous record of about 330 years for Cassiopeia A. The rapid expansion and young age for G1.9+0.3 was recently confirmed by a new VLA image obtained in early 2008.

The original supernova explosion was not seen in optical light about 140 years ago because it occurred close to the center of the Galaxy, and is embedded in a dense field of gas and dust. This made the supernova about a trillion times fainter, in optical light, than if it had been unobscured. However, X-rays and radio waves from the resulting supernova remnant easily penetrate this dust and gas.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/photos08-062.html