# NASA set to announce discovery... any guesses as to what it is? **URL:** \ **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:** 5
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/81 "2008-05-09T19:41:18Z")
[QUOTE=Washoe] It would seem reasonable that astronomers would have looked for evidence of young neutron stars 50 years ago by searching for their radio signatures [/QUOTE] Except that the first pulsars weren’t discovered until 1968. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/82 "2008-05-09T19:42:21Z")
Maybe it’s the [Sun’s companion star](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060424180559.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/83 "2008-05-09T19:50:33Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Maybe it’s the [Sun’s companion star](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060424180559.htm). [/QUOTE] If the Sun has a companion star, it’s almost certainly a dim Main Sequence star or brown dwarf. Dim stars don’t emit much in the X-ray part of the spectrum. If it were a radio or infrared observatory announcing it, I’d think you might be right. Neutron stars do emit X-rays, but it’s unlikely that we’d be here if there had been a supernova that close by. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/84 "2008-05-09T20:01:09Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville] Except that the first pulsars weren’t discovered until 1968. [/QUOTE] OK, but that doesn’t shoot my hypothesis down completely. They could have been looking for non-pulsar neutron stars, the existence of which was proposed in [1934](http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1076395&blobtype=pdf) and further elucidated in [1938](http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1938ApJ....88..522Z). ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/85 "2008-05-09T20:07:00Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] No, but I’d like to use x-ray specs to study heavenly bodies. [/QUOTE] Nice. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/86 "2008-05-09T20:56:30Z")
[QUOTE=Rysdad] [I’ll betcha that’s it.](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080506194033.htm) (PS- [Sciencedaily.com](http://Sciencedaily.com) is a neat place to peruse, for those interested in all sorts of sciencey stuff.) [/QUOTE] Just a nit: Rysdad’s cite mentions dark matter, but if you read closer you’ll see that what they actually found was some of the ordinary matter that had been missing (theorized about but not in evidence). The matter they found is not in our galaxy, though. Also it’s a gas, so the word “object” in NASA’s teaser seems to be a mismatch, too. Whatever NASA found, it’ll have to be really cool to live up to their teaser. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/87 "2008-05-09T22:03:36Z")
[QUOTE=mwbrooks] Whatever NASA found, it’ll have to be really cool to live up to their teaser. [/QUOTE] It never is. Their previous hyped press releases haven’t. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2008, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/88 "2008-05-09T23:30:22Z")
A black hole isn’t an object, either though. It’s, well a dimensionless singularity with an event horizon or accretion disk that isn’t an object, either. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/89 "2008-05-10T02:25:49Z")
Wormhole terminus. Alpha Centari here we come! ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/90 "2008-05-10T03:07:08Z")
[QUOTE=Projammer] Wormhole terminus. Alpha Centari here we come! [/QUOTE] Or, perhaps “Here they are!” Tris ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/91 "2008-05-10T03:16:29Z")
[QUOTE=Angua] I doubt its going to be a habitable planet – as far as I’m aware (and as an X-ray astronomer who knows very little about extra-solar planets), habitable planets don’t have bright X-ray albedos. [/quote] Unless it’s a habitable planet the Empire just blew to little tiny bits for supporting the Rebellion. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/92 "2008-05-10T08:36:15Z")
Maybe it’s also the plan for the galactic bypass route for which Earth will be knocked down. It’s on display at the local planning office. ---
**Author:** ![DaveLister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f0a364/32.png) [@DaveLister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveLister)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/93 "2008-05-10T12:26:38Z")
GWB’s brain? Oh, wait - they’d never find that in a million years… ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2008, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/94 "2008-05-10T13:00:51Z")
[QUOTE=DaveLister] GWB’s brain? Oh, wait - they’d never find that in a million years.. [/QUOTE] Ha! That’s original. ---
**Author:** ![mwbrooks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mwbrooks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mwbrooks)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/95 "2008-05-12T15:13:23Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar] A black hole isn’t an object, either though. It’s, well a dimensionless singularity with an event horizon or accretion disk that isn’t an object, either. [/QUOTE] I have to disagree. A black hole is a material thing, distinct and profoundly detached from any mathematical problems it presents for us. And it can be perceived, if only by its effect on surrounding objects. (Although I’ve read that we can detect radiation that might be cast off directly by evaporating black holes.) And that’s just the first definition of “object.” A handy dictionary says an object can also be, “A focus of attention, feeling, thought, or action.” If a black hole isn’t that, what the heck are we talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/96 "2008-05-12T15:19:20Z")
This is eerily familiar to the buildup to the Seagway. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/97 "2008-05-12T15:33:47Z")
[QUOTE=Rhythmdvl] This is eerily familiar to the buildup to the Seagway. [/QUOTE] Therefore… NASA has discovered that… a mechanical fault has caused all but two wheels to fall off both robots - Spirit and Opportunity, yet they remain in an eerily upright position. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/98 "2008-05-12T15:38:05Z")
[QUOTE=DaveLister] GWB’s brain? Oh, wait - they’d never find that in a million years.. [/QUOTE] Let’s keep the political jabs out of General Questions, mkay? **Gfactor** General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/99 "2008-05-12T15:43:09Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Maybe it’s the [Sun’s companion star](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060424180559.htm). [/QUOTE] Maybe the [Nemesis star](http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/nemesis_010320-1.html)! ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2008, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/100 "2008-05-12T15:47:31Z")
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