Pasadena, Calif. -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found a bizarre ring of material around the magnetic remains of a star that blasted to smithereens.
The stellar corpse, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars. These are the cores of massive stars that blew up in supernova explosions, but unlike other dead stars, they slowly pulsate with X-rays and have tremendously strong magnetic fields.
"The universe is a big place and weird things can happen," said Stefanie Wachter of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, who found the ring serendipitously. "I was flipping through archived Spitzer data of the object, and that's when I noticed it was surrounded by a ring we'd never seen before." Wachter is lead author of a paper about the findings in this week's Nature. You can see the ring at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitz ... 80528.html .
Wachter and her colleagues think that the ring, which is unlike anything ever seen before, formed in 1998 when the magnetar erupted in a giant flare. They believe the crusty surface of the magnetar cracked, sending out a flare, or blast of energy, that excavated a nearby cloud of dust, leaving an outer, dusty ring. This ring is oblong, with dimensions of about seven by three light-years. It appears to be flat, or two-dimensional, but the scientists said they can't rule out the possibility of a three-dimensional shell.
Let's Lock and load. The arrival of the Flood is only a matter of time...
"Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself. Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards." ~Count Aral Vorkosigan, A Civil Campaign AO3 Link | FFN Link
andrewgpaul wrote:'77, I think. They came back later; Consider Phlebas has extracts from the English-Language Culture information pack from the 2100s.
Been a while since I read that, didn't they decide Earth was to be a control world, no intervention, just left alone to see how a species would develop without Culture influence?
That decision wouldn't preclude continued surveillance to observe the growth of the human race
Darth Nostril wrote:Been a while since I read that, didn't they decide Earth was to be a control world, no intervention, just left alone to see how a species would develop without Culture influence?
That decision wouldn't preclude continued surveillance to observe the growth of the human race
Appendices: the Idiran-Culture war
(The following three pages have been extracted fromA Short History of the Idiran War (English language/Christian calendar version, original text 2110 AD, unaltered), edited by Parharengyisa Listach Ja'andeesih Petrain dam Kotosklo. The work forms part of an independent, non-commissioned but Contact-approved Earth Extro-Information Pack.)
Nothing will happen to you if you stare for too long into.. the.... eye...
Blood for the Blood God! Spaceship for the Skull throne! For Chaos!
(I'm sorry, but a giant weird, red nebula in space that looks exactly like a giant eye? There's a limit to restraint on 40K jokes, and this just overruled it )
All you people thinking about the Culture are so damn optimistic
Photography Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Jesus H. Christ if that doesn't look like the Eye of Terror!
Oi. I was at least hoping our absurdly advanced alien neighbors were friendly, not raep crazy space barbarians. I have no huge desire to taste the rainbow of the Emperor's Children.
18-Till-I-Die wrote:Jesus H. Christ if that doesn't look like the Eye of Terror!
Oi. I was at least hoping our absurdly advanced alien neighbors were friendly, not raep crazy space barbarians. I have no huge desire to taste the rainbow of the Emperor's Children.
Have faith, brother. The God-Emperor walks amongst his children, and in an upcoming time of trial by fire and blood, He shall lead His faithful to battle against Chaos.
We will have to sacrifice much, but with His protection and His holy sword, we shall smite the foul fiends of Chaos and drive them back to the ravages of the Warp which spawned them!
Remember: It is better to die for the Emperor than live for yourself!
...
I am so using this next time I meet a Jehova's Witness.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
)
