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Astronomers Detect Record-Breaking Gamma Ray Bursts

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Astronomers Detect Record-Breaking Gamma Ray Bursts

#2
>> A powerful outburst in a distant galaxy produced photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes for the first time

First sentence makes no sense.

several galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based mark-1 eyeballs every night.

Staggering numbers of galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes every night.

They need to include the unusually short wavelength of the photons to convey their message.

Re: Astronomers Detect Record-Breaking Gamma Ray Bursts

#3
post #2

>> A powerful outburst in a distant galaxy produced photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes for the first time First sentence makes no sense. several galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based mark-1 eyeballs every night. Staggering numbers of galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes every ni…

Well, the sentence has to be understood in the context of the headline, which specifically talks about gamma radiation, which so far was not possible to observe from earth as the atmosphere absorbs it.

So this must have been a really scary event, sending photons over 4 billion light years, energetic enough to pass through the absorbing atmosphere.

We can only hope to never be hit by a GRB from our cosmic neighbourhood, that would be a life-ending event.

Re: Astronomers Detect Record-Breaking Gamma Ray Bursts

#4
post #2

>> A powerful outburst in a distant galaxy produced photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes for the first time First sentence makes no sense. several galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based mark-1 eyeballs every night. Staggering numbers of galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes every ni…

The subject of the sentence is "a powerful outburst" not "a distant galaxy".

The powerful outburst produced photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes for the first time.

Re: Astronomers Detect Record-Breaking Gamma Ray Bursts

#6
post #2

>> A powerful outburst in a distant galaxy produced photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes for the first time First sentence makes no sense. several galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based mark-1 eyeballs every night. Staggering numbers of galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes every ni…

If you can look up and see gamma rays with your eyeballs, marvel has a movie deal for you.

Re: Astronomers Detect Record-Breaking Gamma Ray Bursts

#7
post #2

>> A powerful outburst in a distant galaxy produced photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes for the first time First sentence makes no sense. several galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based mark-1 eyeballs every night. Staggering numbers of galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes every ni…

The visible light we see with our eyeballs - produced by electron transitions in atoms - has an energy of 2-3 eV; the atmosphere is transparent to them. It's mostly opaque to the reported energies, produced by the decay of the the nuclei of atoms.

The universe is also opaque to these energies, because they interact with 'background photons' (and possibly electrons) in their travel. We're lucky that only a few 'make it through' (and require sensitive scopes to detect).

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/320/5884/1752

(The energies in the new report are 10 times higher than those in the cited paper from 2008.)

Re: Astronomers Detect Record-Breaking Gamma Ray Bursts

#8
post #2

>> A powerful outburst in a distant galaxy produced photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes for the first time First sentence makes no sense. several galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based mark-1 eyeballs every night. Staggering numbers of galaxies produce photons with high enough energies to be detected by ground-based telescopes every ni…

If you can look up and see gamma rays with your eyeballs, marvel has a movie deal for you.

The wording of the article made it sound like it went thru the atmosphere only because it’s got high energy. Which is wrong, it should be despite of.
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