Trying to remember...arcanixOctober 6 2005, 00:16:00 UTC
I seem to recall you saying something a while back about a fascination with short gamma ray bursts. I might be mistaken, so sue me, but check this out.
Re: Trying to remember...sr_foxleyOctober 6 2005, 11:04:19 UTC
Awesome!
I'm not sure the high-energy gamma bursts they talk about in that article are the same thing as the ultra-high energy cosmic rays I was talking about back in that color post. In fact, I suspect it's not-- this article says the 35-year mystery was solved, but AFAIK, the UHE cosmic rays have only been known about for little over 10 years. (I seem to recall that UHE cosmic rays were first detected when trying to study the nature of more-or-less "average" cosmic rays.) The competing hypotheses were that cosmic rays were generated by super-novas, and that cosmic rays were generated by the collision of massive celestial objects (like neutron stars and black holes). This new discovery at least lays that debate to rest.
Still, I wish the information in that article were a little more definitive-- are they talking about your average run-of-the-mill cosmic rays here, or UHE cosmic rays?
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I'm not sure the high-energy gamma bursts they talk about in that article are the same thing as the ultra-high energy cosmic rays I was talking about back in that color post. In fact, I suspect it's not-- this article says the 35-year mystery was solved, but AFAIK, the UHE cosmic rays have only been known about for little over 10 years. (I seem to recall that UHE cosmic rays were first detected when trying to study the nature of more-or-less "average" cosmic rays.) The competing hypotheses were that cosmic rays were generated by super-novas, and that cosmic rays were generated by the collision of massive celestial objects (like neutron stars and black holes). This new discovery at least lays that debate to rest.
Still, I wish the information in that article were a little more definitive-- are they talking about your average run-of-the-mill cosmic rays here, or UHE cosmic rays?
In any case, this is really cool news. :D
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