Comments on: A Star is Unborn

A Star is Unborn

Kronos_to_Earth — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:30:57 -0800

"Here was an object brand new. At first we didn't recognize it." Dr. Alicia Soderberg on the discovery of Supernova 2008D, using the Swift satellite telescope....

By: nax

nax — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:43:58 -0800

damn it, kronos, you beat me to it.

By: sciurus

sciurus — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:50:05 -0800

Wow, that is cool.

By: msalt

msalt — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:11:54 -0800

Here was an object brand new. This is a discovery very lucky.

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:15:18 -0800

Very awesome, it is.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:20:01 -0800

My people call to me. They are.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:25:28 -0800

Brand new? It happened ninety million years ago, and they're just finding out about it now!!! Huh. So much for any advanced warning from these bozos.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:26:18 -0800

Man, that news is 88 million years old.

By: number9dream

number9dream — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:27:35 -0800

That gave me a boner. I love science.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:28:44 -0800

Yeah. I heard about it on All Things Considered today. The announcer said it was the first supernova witnessed at the time of the explosion and I'm all like "huh?" Thanks for mis-informing the public, NPR. You won't see me come Fall Pledge Drive.

By: everichon

everichon — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:30:31 -0800

And here is a thread with a direction predictable.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:09:39 -0800

Brand new? It happened ninety million years ago, and they're just finding out about it now!!! Actually, to us it is happening now. If you re-conceptualize your view of physics to include outstanding conceptual qualities of light and travel such as simultaneity and distance supercession then it is within reason that we are (can be) here and there/"far-ever" we want to be now. It only takes a perception of light as instantaneously conduitive as opposed to merely instantaneous. I believe John Dobson has a similar take on things, disregarded/non-traditional as it may be: In a discussion of the speed of light, Dobson says "it is not a speed, but the ratio of space to time." "Time," says Dobson, "is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once. Space is nature's way of keeping everything from happening in the same place."

By: absalom

absalom — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:18:35 -0800

I believe that was the joke, humannaire. :) This is pretty cool.

By: thecaddy

thecaddy — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:59:51 -0800

I liked its old stuff better.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:09:16 -0800

They get nucleosynthesis wrong in the end of the article - everything up to iron, inclusive, can be formed in main sequence stars. Otherwise, great post.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:20:36 -0800

The discovery came Jan. 7, when Berger and his fiancee, Alicia Soderberg, both 30, were using NASA's Swift spacecraft to observe an already discovered supernova in the galaxy NGC 2770. "I just finished dinner and there was nothing interesting on the TV," Berger said. "I decided to take a quick look at the observation." I would have made this discovery myself, but I was reading Metafilter that evening.