NASA discovery, speculation inside

[Malakriss]

If they're waiting 4 days, it can't be that important for normal non-astrophysicists.

[ChewieTobbacca]

Going to be non exciting for non astrophysicists

But the clue is 50 years so its something we've only known about for the past 50 years

[Millie]

Originally Posted by Malakriss

If they're waiting 4 days, it can't be that important for normal non-astrophysicists.

Relax. Crafting a decent press release to announce the impending arrival of our new insect overlords takes care and time. You can't just do it overnight.

[Burf]

Originally Posted by Millie

Relax. Crafting a decent press release to announce the impending arrival of our new Cylon overlords takes care and time. You can't just do it overnight.

Fixed (well, my version, anyway)

[Gauss]

Originally Posted by Burf

Fixed (well, my version, anyway)

I'm going with Phyllis Diller is a cylon. What is she like 200?

[Eomer]

Exciting... I'm going with a black hole. What else could it be?

eh? There's plenty of black holes and other similar kinds of celestial objects that astronomers know about in our galaxy. Black holes are almost boring these days. I mean they know for a fact there's a ginormous one at the center of the galaxy, why would they schedule a news conference for a wimpy one?

I was gonna say that perhaps it was going to be the discovery of a planetary system that closely mirrors our own, however they only say it's an "object" and it's been discovered by Chandra, so actually I'm going with some sort of really unique and rare blackhole/neutron/magnetar or something.

[Millie]

Originally Posted by Eomer

eh? There's plenty of black holes and other similar kinds of celestial objects that astronomers know about in our galaxy. Black holes are almost boring these days. I mean they know for a fact there's a ginormous one at the center of the galaxy, why would they schedule a news conference for a wimpy one?

I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that no one has ever actually observed a black hole. It's a theoretical object that we basically know exists, and we know there's one at the center of our galaxy, but we've never seen or observed it directly. So if the announcement is about a black hole, or especially the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, it's a very impressive finding. It would prove correct a lot of our theories about the galaxy and the universe, and if Hawking radiation is observed, would earn Stephen Hawking a Nobel Prize.

[Twobit Whore]

It's either a blackhole, some darkmatter type substance, some obscure phase in the life of a star or some wack radiation that doesn't mean jack to the layman.

It does say 'object' though, and a little digging seems to indicate it's something relating to a star.

[Burf]

So, I have a question. Ok, the LHC is being built in Europe that will smash the crap out of stuff and find other smaller stuff that may be the building blocks of the universe.
We have telescopes and other detectors that can see radiation, etc blah blah science stuff.

So....what? I'm definitely not some scientific genius, but, at the end of the day, what does this get us except jobs for smart people?

[Tyen]

Originally Posted by Gigfc

They turned it around for Vanguard!

this

[Millie]

Originally Posted by Burf

So, I have a question. Ok, the LHC is being built in Europe that will smash the crap out of stuff and find other smaller stuff that may be the building blocks of the universe.
We have telescopes and other detectors that can see radiation, etc blah blah science stuff.

So....what? I'm definitely not some scientific genius, but, at the end of the day, what does this get us except jobs for smart people?

The more we understand about how stuff works, the better stuff we can do and build. It's pretty simple. :P

[Soriak]

It's basic science, you never know what you get out of it until long after some discovery has been made. I think the LHC is mostly about confirming what theory currently says should happen, and learn if scientists are on the right track. It might not even be big enough, they're already working on the plans to extend it.

Who knows what we'll get out of it. Maybe some insight that will help with designing quantum computers? Maybe something entirely new nobody can yet predict. It may encourage more students to become interested in physics or science in general.

At the very least, it's another step towards understanding the universe. Satisfying curiosity is worth spending money on, imo.

[Salshun]

It's colonization. A national state of emergency will be declared. And no, you can't stop it. Not if you want to ever see your sister again, Fox.

[Eomer]

Originally Posted by Millie

I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that no one has ever actually observed a black hole. It's a theoretical object that we basically know exists, and we know there's one at the center of our galaxy, but we've never seen or observed it directly. So if the announcement is about a black hole, or especially the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, it's a very impressive finding. It would prove correct a lot of our theories about the galaxy and the universe, and if Hawking radiation is observed, would earn Stephen Hawking a Nobel Prize.

You can't observe a black hole, because of their very nature. You can however observe their effects on their surroundings, such as jets of material shooting out of them, huge amounts of X-rays (which is what Chandra observes), that kind of thing. We've observed that kind of thing tons. Regular old black holes are pretty old hat at this point.

They know exactly where the main blackhole in our galaxy is. And indeed, they've observed thousands of other galaxies' supermassive blackholes.

But again, stars don't automatically always end up as black holes. They can end up brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, magnetars, pulars, there's dozens of unique and interesting things they can end up. My bet is on them having found something like that, some unique and extremely rare post-main phase star.

[Angerz]

Originally Posted by Millie

The more we understand about how stuff works, the better stuff we can do and build. It's pretty simple. :P

Actually, I would say it is extraordinarily complex.