# NASA set to announce discovery... any guesses as to what it is?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 8, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575 "2008-05-08T16:37:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/1 "2008-05-08T16:37:21Z")
See here: [NASA news release](http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/may/HQ_M08089_Chandra_Advisory.html).
I’ve been trying to figure out what they’ve spent 50 years searching for, and all I can come up with is maybe a habitable planet (although that seems unlikely)?
Anybody else have a guess?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/2 "2008-05-08T16:42:49Z")
They wouldn’t be finding a habitable planet with X-ray observations, would they? Have they definitively found a black hole or neutron star, as opposed to deducing the location of one (“It’s the only thing that’s heavy enough and small enough to fit in that location”)?
What about a small black hole orbiting within the solar system? Or a magnetic monopole?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/3 "2008-05-08T16:43:03Z")
Black hole.
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### Author:  [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/4 "2008-05-08T16:43:29Z")
I heard something this morning on NPR about a “flash” in the sky that triggered an automatic override on a large number of robotic telescopes. Apparently this event was so hard to find, and observations of it were deemed so valuable, that observatories all over the world were willing to drop everything to scan that portion of the sky to observe it.
I’m guessing it’s a supernova of some sort, but we see them pretty often, so who knows?
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/5 "2008-05-08T16:46:08Z")
Awesome, they finally found all those missing socks!
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/6 "2008-05-08T16:48:35Z")
My guess is a supernova in our galaxy.
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### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/7 "2008-05-08T16:51:54Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
They wouldn’t be finding a habitable planet with X-ray observations, would they?
[/QUOTE]
That was my thought… hence the “although that seems unlikely”; but I don’t know enough about x-ray telescopy to say for sure.
As for black holes, haven’t they already found them?
Supernovae we’ve already seen in our galaxy, I believe.
Socks? Maybe… 😉
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### Author:  [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/8 "2008-05-08T17:01:07Z")
[QUOTE=fiddlesticks]
Awesome, they finally found all those missing socks!
[/QUOTE]
First thing I thought of when I read your reply:
Kent Brockman: We interrupt this program to bring you a special report.
Homer Simpson: _gasp_ Someone found my car keys!
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/9 "2008-05-08T17:04:01Z")
I got all excited, but then I noticed the press conference isn’t until next Wednesday. Sheesh. Those NASA folks are such teases.
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### Author:  [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/10 "2008-05-08T17:06:41Z")
New Cherry flavored Tang!
(Shouldn’t guess threads/polls be done in IMHO, or some such? heh…)
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### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/11 "2008-05-08T17:17:52Z")
[QUOTE=mlees]
(Shouldn’t guess threads/polls be done in IMHO, or some such? heh…)
[/QUOTE]
Hmm… could be. If so, a Mod can move it with no objection from me.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/12 "2008-05-08T17:18:25Z")
Why all the fuss about finding a black hole? The Earth will be overrun with the things by the [end of next month](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider). 🙂
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### Author:  [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/13 "2008-05-08T17:20:32Z")
[QUOTE=Astroboy14]
Hmm… could be. If so, a Mod can move it with no objection from me.
[/QUOTE]
Please forgive. I didn’t mean that to sound so nit-picky. In the GQ section, I worry about my tendancy to speculate instead of cite.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/14 "2008-05-08T17:22:05Z")
Are the Mars Rovers still roving? Life on Mars, or perhaps water.
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### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/15 "2008-05-08T17:29:48Z")
[QUOTE=mlees]
Please forgive. I didn’t mean that to sound so nit-picky.
[/QUOTE]
No worries. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/16 "2008-05-08T17:36:08Z")
[QUOTE=Paul in Saudi]
Are the Mars Rovers still roving? Life on Mars, or perhaps water.
[/QUOTE]
No, the Martians ran out of [printer ink](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqc_SeLLcs)
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/17 "2008-05-08T17:54:43Z")
I hate to blow the suspense, but… never mind.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/18 "2008-05-08T17:55:59Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
Have they definitively found a black hole or neutron star, as opposed to deducing the location of one (“It’s the only thing that’s heavy enough and small enough to fit in that location”)?
[/QUOTE]
There is no other way to find one, other than by deduction. It’s not possible to directly observe one, 'cause in a very real sense they aren’t there.
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### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/19 "2008-05-08T17:57:54Z")
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
There is no other way to find one, other than by deduction. It’s not possible to directly observe one, 'cause in a very real sense they aren’t there.
[/QUOTE]
True, but gravitational lensing is pretty definite proof, isn’t it (even though technically it’s still just deduction)?
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/20 "2008-05-08T18:00:30Z")
It’s clearly [Voyager 6!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Motion_Picture) :eek:
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