| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Sam Wormley" |
| Date: |
20 Apr 2006 10:59:09 PM |
| Object: |
Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts |
Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts (Apr 20)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/10/4/9
Do you lie awake at night worrying that life on Earth might one day be
destroyed by a blast of gamma radiation from space? Then don't, because
a team of astronomers in the US has calculated that the probability of
such an event occurring in our galaxy is virtually zero. Krzysztof
Stanek and colleagues at Ohio State University say that gamma-ray bursts
-- the most powerful explosions in the universe after the big bang --
only tend to occur in small, misshapen "metal-poor" galaxies. Our Milky
Way is safe since it is a large spiral galaxy that contains lots of
heavy elements (astro-ph/0604113).
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| User: "OsherD" |
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| Title: Re: Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts |
21 Apr 2006 01:34:34 AM |
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From Osher Doctorow
Sam Wormley typed:
Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray burst(Apr 20)
In some ways, parts of science resemble history. In history, it turns
out that many things happen either accidentally (by coincidence) or for
reasons other than the "obvious" ones, or even for multiple reasons.
Another nice thing about history is that if people learn the "lessons"
of history, they arguably wont' repeat the mistakes of past
generations.
Osher
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| User: "OsherD" |
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| Title: Re: Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts |
21 Apr 2006 01:46:06 AM |
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From Osher Doctorow
Now that I've typed that, it occurs to me that most history courses
that I've taken were extremely detail-oriented and almost entirely
lacking in "lessons of history" in the sense of conclusions,
principles, even guesses or hypotheses or conjectures or speculations
or theories etc. So if one takes a history course, it should be in
one of the top 8 Universities (Stanford, Princeton, Chicago, U. Texas
Austin, U. Florida Gainesville, and at the bottom of my list of 8 MIT
and CalTech, and formerly Harvard until they fired their anti-Terrorist
President - now I recommend West Point instead of Harvard, and any
other Military College in the USA). Otherwise, read history on the
internet and make sure to figure out its "lessons".
Osher
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| User: "Gregory L. Hansen" |
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| Title: Re: Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts |
21 Apr 2006 06:10:57 PM |
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In article <hMY1g.110067$oL.57446@attbi_s71>,
Sam Wormley <swormley1@mchsi.com> wrote:
Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts (Apr 20)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/10/4/9
Do you lie awake at night worrying that life on Earth might one day be
destroyed by a blast of gamma radiation from space? Then don't, because
a team of astronomers in the US has calculated that the probability of
such an event occurring in our galaxy is virtually zero. Krzysztof
Stanek and colleagues at Ohio State University say that gamma-ray bursts
-- the most powerful explosions in the universe after the big bang --
only tend to occur in small, misshapen "metal-poor" galaxies. Our Milky
Way is safe since it is a large spiral galaxy that contains lots of
heavy elements (astro-ph/0604113).
It might be mentioned that to an atronomer, a metal is anything other than
hydrogen or helium...
--
"It is the weak who are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the
strong." -- Leo Roskin
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| User: "Jan Panteltje" |
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| Title: Re: Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts |
21 Apr 2006 06:32:42 AM |
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On a sunny day (Fri, 21 Apr 2006 03:59:09 GMT) it happened Sam Wormley
<swormley1@mchsi.com> wrote in <hMY1g.110067$oL.57446@attbi_s71>:
Metals protect Milky Way from gamma-ray bursts (Apr 20)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/10/4/9
Do you lie awake at night worrying that life on Earth might one day be
destroyed by a blast of gamma radiation from space? Then don't, because
a team of astronomers in the US has calculated that the probability of
such an event occurring in our galaxy is virtually zero.
And they calculated virtual zero for Tjernobyl, Long Iland, several subs too.
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