{"id":12359,"date":"2008-05-21T13:30:52","date_gmt":"2008-05-21T20:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/05\/21\/spotting-a-supernova.html"},"modified":"2008-05-21T13:30:52","modified_gmt":"2008-05-21T20:30:52","slug":"spotting_a_supernova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/21\/spotting_a_supernova.html","title":{"rendered":"Spotting a supernova"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Scientists say they’ve actually caught a supernova in the act<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

There is no way to predict exactly where and when in the Universe a supernova will occur, says Alicia Soderberg, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University in New Jersey. “It only lasts a few minutes and it is difficult to catch that signal,” she says. Before now, astronomers were only able to look at the afterglows of supernovae.<\/p>\n

That is exactly what Soderberg herself was doing on 9 January 2008, when she spotted the explosion. She was using NASA’s Swift gamma-ray burst satellite to observe the remnants of a supernova in a nearby galaxy, when a sudden X-ray burst flared up. The X-ray flash lasted just minutes, but right away, she knew what she was seeing.<\/p>\n

“I immediately triggered observations at all the telescopes I could get my hands on,” she recalls. Observatories around the world turned their eyes to the distant galaxy and observed the explosion as it faded. The result is perhaps the most complete record of a supernova to date.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cool.<\/p>\n

More info<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists say they’ve actually caught a supernova in the act. There is no way to predict exactly where and when in the Universe a supernova will occur, says Alicia…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2640,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/23\/you_think_al_qa.html","url_meta":{"origin":12359,"position":0},"title":"You think Al Qa’eda is all you have to worry about?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 23-May-02 3:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Scientists have found a nearby star that, very soon, could explode into a supernova, and which is close enough that the explosion would wipe out all life on Earth. 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George Washington's first voters got half a gallon of rum\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3381,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/12\/05\/alas_barsoom.html","url_meta":{"origin":12359,"position":4},"title":"Alas, Barsoom","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Dec-02 12:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Another nail in the coffin for canals and tharks, as scientists claim Mars never even had oceans in the past, just Nemesis-class asteroid strikes that scoured the surface like a...","rel":"","context":"In "Science & Nature"","block_context":{"text":"Science & Nature","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/science"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36650,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/02\/fly-with-a-complementary-beverage-and-a-free-x-ray.html","url_meta":{"origin":12359,"position":5},"title":"Fly\u00a0with a complementary beverage AND a free X-ray!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Jun-13 3:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Actually, complementary beverages are becoming a thing of the past for most passengers in Steerage Class. 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