# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/141 "2008-05-14T19:22:29Z")
That does inded help, thanks **Astroboy14** and **Angua**. šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/142 "2008-05-14T19:27:54Z")
[QUOTE=mlees] That does inded help, thanks **Astroboy14** and **Angua**. šŸ™‚ [/QUOTE] No worries. šŸ™‚ By the by, I donā€™t see any reason we have to spoiler any Qs or As hereā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/143 "2008-05-14T19:31:05Z")
[QUOTE=Astroboy14] No worries. šŸ™‚ By the by, I donā€™t see any reason we have to spoiler any Qs or As hereā€¦ [/QUOTE] Wellā€¦ _points at **Kid\_A** _ā€¦ he started itā€¦ ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/144 "2008-05-14T19:33:53Z")
:grumble: just trying to be considerateā€¦never going to try that again. Why is it IRL I can never get people to follow me this well? Thanks for the explanations, I was pretty confused as to what all of this meant. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/145 "2008-05-14T19:35:59Z")
So waitā€¦ why did they say weā€™ve been looking for this for the last 50 years? Beer to whoever said itā€™d be a supernove, despite all the logic that it wouldnā€™t be. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/146 "2008-05-14T19:36:41Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I bow down before you. šŸ™‚ [/QUOTE] šŸ™‚ _blush_ He taught me for a long time when I was an undergrad and we bump into each other fairly regularly at conferences. No problem **mlees**. And seconded re not needing spoilers! ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/147 "2008-05-14T19:41:16Z")
[QUOTE=Alex\_Dubinsky] So waitā€¦ why did they say weā€™ve been looking for this for the last 50 years? [/QUOTE] I suppose its the entire ā€œtrying to find a supernova in our galaxy thatā€™s younger than Cassiopeia Aā€ which is about 300 years old, and was discovered in 1947. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/148 "2008-05-14T19:51:16Z")
Q: Why the hype? A: To get, and keep, the public interested in space exploration, and increased funding for these programs. Q: Why isnā€™t the public interested in space exploration? A: Too many times has the reveal not lived up to the hype. It seems like a self fulfilling prophecy. heh. ---
**Author:** ![Improvisor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/50afbb/32.png) [@Improvisor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improvisor)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/149 "2008-05-14T20:07:49Z")
A good, ā€œeasy for the layman to understandā€ write-up by the [Bad Astronomer](http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/05/14/youngest-galactic-supernova-not-aliens-found) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/150 "2008-05-14T20:25:38Z")
Bad Astonomerā€™s explanation is excellent. Except that in comparing two images taken 23 years, he makes me wonder why, when it was seen in 1985, astronomers didnā€™t figure that it was a supernova then. Is the big deal that weā€™ve noticed growth? Why wasnā€™t it noticed before this? ---
**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 14, 2008, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/151 "2008-05-14T20:39:19Z")
[QUOTE=CC] ā€¦Is the big deal that weā€™ve noticed growth? Why wasnā€™t it noticed before this? [/QUOTE] They probably recognized it as a supernova, but it took the visible expansion to show it was as young as it is. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/152 "2008-05-14T20:46:05Z")
[QUOTE=CC] Bad Astonomerā€™s explanation is excellent. Except that in comparing two images taken 23 years, he makes me wonder why, when it was seen in 1985, astronomers didnā€™t figure that it was a supernova then. Is the big deal that weā€™ve noticed growth? Why wasnā€™t it noticed before this? [/QUOTE] Well, it was seen and noticed as a supernova in 1985 (the technical name G1.9+03 refers, I believe to its numbering in the Green Catalog of Supernova Remnants). What wasnā€™t known was how old it is. When Reynolds et al looked at the _Chandra_ X-ray image, they noticed that the X-ray extent of the remnant was larger than the radio remnant observed in 1985, thus clearly having expanded in the meantime (at any given point the X-ray and radio should be roughly the same size as the mechanism producing the X-rays and radio waves is the same.). So it was reobserved in the radio and found to have grown in the radio too. Thus, an age could be determined since there are 3 observations at different times, allowing an expansion speed to be estimated. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/153 "2008-05-14T20:58:45Z")
What about the black hole question? Did it make a black hole? What type of supernova was it? ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/154 "2008-05-14T21:21:31Z")
[QUOTE=WarmNPrickly] What about the black hole question? Did it make a black hole? What type of supernova was it? [/QUOTE] The short answer? Weā€™re not sure and we need further observations to answer these. šŸ˜‰ In slightly more detail, the [X-ray discovery paper](http://de.arxiv.org/abs/0803.1487) suggests that this is probably a [Type 1a supernova](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_Ia_supernova), but the paper also makes predictions for what else we should be able to see at other energies if this is the case. So the classification needs to be confirmed. If this is a type 1a, then its unlikely that a black hole will have been produced as its generally thought that a type 1a progenitor star is an accreting white dwarf star, which, IIRC, when it goes supernova generally results in a neutron star. ---
**Author:** ![Natch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@Natch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Natch)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/155 "2008-05-15T00:43:51Z")
My first thought, and as a bad astronomy commenter pointed outā€¦it [IS](http://www.badastronomy.com/pix/bablog/2008/youngest_snr.jpg) the Firefox logo! The gods are telling us that Firefox is the better browser! ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/156 "2008-05-15T02:08:46Z")
[QUOTE=Kid\_A] Scientists using NASAā€™s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered the Milky Wayā€™s most recent supernova, which exploded a mere 140 years ago, a few years after the Civil War. Source: [http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/liveblog-nasa-a.html](http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/liveblog-nasa-a.html) [/QUOTE] Call me underwhelmed. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/157 "2008-05-15T02:39:22Z")
[QUOTE=Natch!] My first thought, and as a bad astronomy commenter pointed outā€¦it IS the Firefox logo! [/QUOTE] It looks more like the eye of Sauron to me ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/158 "2008-05-15T04:30:54Z")
Great. All I can think of now is in how, 5 billion years from now, some distant alien species will be bemoaning the yawn-fest on their version of the internet, when our star blows up. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/159 "2008-05-15T06:09:52Z")
[QUOTE=cmyk] Great. All I can think of now is in how, 5 billion years from now, some distant alien species will be bemoaning the yawn-fest on their version of the internet, when our star blows up. [/QUOTE] Except ours really will be a yawn-fest ā€“ our Sun is too small to go supernova and will die quietly. As far as the hype goes, Iā€™m not too sure why all the hype, yes it is interesting, if youā€™re working on supernova, then its really very exciting and yes it is something that the public can oooh over, but I think the oooh factor may have been more if it hadnā€™t been for all the hype really building it up. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2008, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575/160 "2008-05-15T06:37:40Z")
How much hype was there? This thread is all I saw about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nasa-set-to-announce-discovery-any-guesses-as-to-what-it-is/448575.md?page=9)