Massive explosion rocks NASA

March 20, 2003 6:55 AM

Massive explosion rocks NASA And Pasadena, and a few other places, too. It's not every day you get to watch a black hole form. Includes cool animation (.mov file). Seems the gamma ray burst detector picks up two or three significant events every month or so.
posted by kewms (12 comments total)

"Massive explosion rocks NASA" a pretty deceptive headline on a day when everyone is worried about terrorism.
posted by jpoulos at 7:07 AM on March 20, 2003

Yeah, but we all needed some levity. Still, "Death Cry"? I don't know, sounds like a weapons test in space to me.
posted by DenOfSizer at 7:12 AM on March 20, 2003

I could do without that type of levity.
posted by Outlawyr at 7:22 AM on March 20, 2003

I'd delete this for the bad taste and the misinformation. Nobody needs that right now, you know.
posted by 111 at 7:58 AM on March 20, 2003

Says you.

I liked it. I thought it was funny. I think self-appointed guardians of good taste are by definition unqualified to hold the position.
posted by Irontom at 8:04 AM on March 20, 2003

I think self-appointed guardians of good taste are by definition unqualified to hold the position.

Which of course immediately applies to your own attempt, if you think about it.
posted by 111 at 8:07 AM on March 20, 2003

Not to derail the thread, but if I were a superstitious man, I'd look at the formation of a black hole as a pretty interesting sign from the heavens right now. As it stands, I'm not superstitious, but I don't lack a bitter, twisted sense of irony.
posted by UKnowForKids at 8:10 AM on March 20, 2003

Not to further derail, but apparently black holes are no longer uncommon. Even our own Milky Way seems to have one.
posted by cowboy at 8:28 AM on March 20, 2003

I didn't say it was in good or bad taste. I said I thought it was a funny joke, and that I resented the statement that it was somehow "inappropriate".
posted by Irontom at 10:36 AM on March 20, 2003

>I'd look at the formation of a black hole as a pretty interesting sign from the heavens right now.

Umm.... this didn't happen next door. Any gamma ray burst that failed to obliterate our atmosphere happened a *long* way away, so at worst this is a "pretty interesting sign from the heavens" several million years go.
posted by krakedhalo at 1:08 PM on March 20, 2003

The fact that they have a satellite exclusively for detecting high energy transient events, that there is such a thing as the "Gamma-ray burst Coordinates Network", that it is connected to an Automatic Response Telescope in Japan... it blew my mind. Thanks for the post, the movies are really cool too.
UKnFK the event was observed on october 2002 and probably happened some time ago with the speed of light being what it is and all.
posted by golo at 1:17 PM on March 20, 2003

krakedhalo any being powerful (and bored) enough to cause a blackhole to come into existence just to make an oblique, vague point to some over-territorial carbon based bipeds probably has some grasp of the concept of the speed of light and multiplication and can compensate for the time lag, no?
It's obviously a sign.
posted by signal at 3:15 PM on March 20, 2003