[HN Gopher] Mysterious 'Tasmanian devil' space explosion baffles...
___________________________________________________________________
Mysterious 'Tasmanian devil' space explosion baffles astronomers
Author : jyunwai
Score : 40 points
Date : 2023-11-18 18:46 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| _"Mysterious_ Nature _article about the /a 'Tasmanian devil'
| space explosion baffles readers by failing to explain why it/they
| is/are called 'Tasmanian devil/s'"_
|
| Hypothesis 1: So named because of rapid spin combined with
| erratic very-high-energy bursts reminiscent of the Tasmanian
| Devil cartoon character.
|
| However, "devil" isn't capitalized, so...
|
| Hypothesis 2: Astronomers who study these so-called LFBOTs have
| been naming them after animals -- cow, koala, finch, camel. Next
| one? Tasmanian devil. Why not?
|
| Because it wasn't why. According to the Syndey Morning Herald,
| it's because the last three letters of its catalog designation
| are "tsd". https://amp.smh.com.au/national/a-galactic-war-of-
| aliens-the...
|
| Pfft.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| Is it a nest of stars leading to a domino effect chain of
| supernovas?
| dmbche wrote:
| "LFBOTs are seen across the Universe and defy explanation. The
| first, dubbed the Cow after its designation AT2018cow, was
| spotted in 2018 in a galaxy about 60 million parsecs (200 million
| light years) from Earth. The Cow was notable for being up to 100
| times brighter than a supernova before dimming over just a few
| days, a process that takes weeks for a supernova."
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-11-18 23:00 UTC)