July 17, 2010

Nobody Knows the Origin of the Biggest X-Ray Explosion Ever Detected

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[The software] basically threw up its hands and said, 'Something must be wrong, because the data doesn't make sense.' We're very puzzled – we don't understand it yet. Every once in a while something comes along that's completely unexpected and this is one of them. The explosion only lasted a few seconds—with Swift receiving 143,000 X-ray photons per second—but the glow continued for 10 minutes after that. Astronomers don't know exactly what's the origin, so here are my scientific guesses: a) The Kree and the Skrull finally annihilated each other using twin versions of the Ultimate Nullifier; b) Klaatoo bought himself a new camera; c) Galactus has some serious intestinal problems. Alternatively, they think it may be the collapsing of a giant star to form a massive black hole. [Swift mission team via New Scientist]

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