The Universe Lights Up on Beethoven's Birthday
With the 230th birthday coming up, has anybody seen this news item? (I've left out a lot of scientific details):
Jan 06, 2000 — The Universe Lights Up on Beethoven's Birthday
Ludwig van Beethoven would have been impressed. On December 16, the 229th anniversary of the musician's birth, the Universe lit up in gamma rays that, for a few seconds, outshone the entire sky.
The event was a gamma-ray burst and was soon dubbed the "Beethoven Burst" by Dr. Brad Schaefer of Yale University. Satellites detect one or more gamma-ray bursts a day, but a burst this bright only happens once in maybe four years.
"This was by far the brightest burst we've detected in a long time," said Dr. Frank Marshall, a NASA astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center. "I knew we had to find its location quickly. Otherwise, all the powerful optical and X-ray telescopes would not be able to study this monster event. "
But in space, the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) got a long, hard look at Beethoven's birthday candle.
An approximation of the redshift, or distance, of the Beethoven Burst puts it more than 10 billion light years away, roughly 5 billion years after the Big Bang. Yet what caused this burst? A neutron star smashing into a black hole? A "hypernova," 100 times more powerful than the already potent supernova? Or maybe a real gung-ho Beethoven fan?
Jan 06, 2000 — The Universe Lights Up on Beethoven's Birthday
Ludwig van Beethoven would have been impressed. On December 16, the 229th anniversary of the musician's birth, the Universe lit up in gamma rays that, for a few seconds, outshone the entire sky.
The event was a gamma-ray burst and was soon dubbed the "Beethoven Burst" by Dr. Brad Schaefer of Yale University. Satellites detect one or more gamma-ray bursts a day, but a burst this bright only happens once in maybe four years.
"This was by far the brightest burst we've detected in a long time," said Dr. Frank Marshall, a NASA astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center. "I knew we had to find its location quickly. Otherwise, all the powerful optical and X-ray telescopes would not be able to study this monster event. "
But in space, the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) got a long, hard look at Beethoven's birthday candle.
An approximation of the redshift, or distance, of the Beethoven Burst puts it more than 10 billion light years away, roughly 5 billion years after the Big Bang. Yet what caused this burst? A neutron star smashing into a black hole? A "hypernova," 100 times more powerful than the already potent supernova? Or maybe a real gung-ho Beethoven fan?
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