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51 Comments
- pinkflyingpig, on 05/29/2009, -0/+20And I thought the source of cosmic rays were those bad mushrooms I ate the other night!
- jaybudzik, on 05/29/2009, -0/+18So can we get to time travel already? Enough pictures and experiments!!!
- ColorWheel, on 05/29/2009, -0/+17Isn't it crazy how tiny our little plot on this earth is? The entire Milky Way Galaxy is only 1 of 100 BILLION galaxies in the universe. Something tells me even this research only barely scratches the surface of what is out there...
- fenceratpoly, on 05/29/2009, -0/+14Cosmic rays are tiny, itsy bitsy particles that can strike with the force of a thrown baseball? Gotta be steroids.
- Georgiane, on 05/29/2009, -1/+14Cosmic what?
- monkcouver, on 05/29/2009, -3/+15Interesting! why black holes spit out cosmic ray? By definition, black holes should not spit out anything: In general relativity, a black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational field is so powerful that nothing, including light, can escape its pull. The black hole has a one-way surface, called an event horizon, into which objects can fall, but out of which nothing can come. It is called "black" because it absorbs all the light that hits it, reflecting nothing ...
- donteatmyrice, on 05/29/2009, -0/+12Trust no one.
- wannaBdug, on 05/29/2009, -0/+12Pack my bags I'm all for time travel.
- walker4bc, on 05/29/2009, -0/+11How amazing is it that we know about some particle that strikes a particular part of the Earth once a century?
- senorboombino, on 05/29/2009, -0/+10If that time travel thing really does happen, I'm gonna go all Biff Tannen on the sports betting world ASAP!
- ColorWheel, on 05/29/2009, -0/+9what planet are you from?!
- youannoyme, on 05/29/2009, -0/+9In response to rolf, Hawking radiation has never been detected. Under "normal" conditions the energy signature is far to weak to detect, and should only be visible on astronomical scales during the final brief flash of evaporation, which has either just not yet been detected, or more likely, the universe it not yet old enough for black holes to have evaporated.
In response to Moncouver, it is true that any matter that crosses the event horizon is not allowed to cross back. However, actually getting matter to cross that line is harder than one would think. Particles have angular momentum which must be conserved, so in order to get close enough to "fall in", they have to lose that momentum somehow, which is done by energetically ejecting other particles. So its not the black hole these particles are being "spit out" from, but rather the inner regions of the accretion disk. - GreenZephyr, on 05/29/2009, -0/+9Makes me feel tiny to think about the powerful forces out in the universe that humans can't begin to match despite our technological advances...
- liebman, on 05/29/2009, -0/+9Cosmik Debris!
- atlasdugged, on 05/29/2009, -0/+8This seems like a pretty important discovery and yet it hardly gets discussed. They should rename the particle something current like "Lady GaGa" maybe a few more people would become educated.
- SexyGeekGirl, on 05/29/2009, -0/+8active galactic nuclei - say that 3 times.
- pingpants, on 05/29/2009, -1/+8I thought the 'Oh-My-Gawd' particle was just a cloaked rehab reference on Gossip Girl.
- DONTRON, on 05/29/2009, -0/+7100 billion galaxies in our OBSERVABLE universe.
- CoreyDigg, on 05/29/2009, -0/+6Cool discovery.
- LaughingMan89, on 05/29/2009, -0/+5Black body radiation at those kinds of temperatures doesn't tend to emit photons even in the visible range, let alone at OMG particle energies.
Anyways there isn't really believed to be any elementary particles massive enough to release that kind of energy in a particle-antiparticle annihilation.
Also keep in mind that super massive black holes (which the article indicates are the one emitting the radiation) are supposed to emit less radiation than smaller black holes, not more.
So no; this is certainly NOT Hawking radiation. Much more probable is that this is radiation emitted by matter falling into the black hole. - NJHiker, on 05/29/2009, -0/+4Actually, they are not photons.
"The term ray is a misnomer, as cosmic particles arrive individually, not in the form of a ray or beam of particles."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray - ColorWheel, on 05/29/2009, -0/+4Is NBA season seriously still going on? It's summer. I thought basketball ended in March.
- StatMech, on 05/29/2009, -0/+4The OMG particle!
- Shwaavay, on 05/29/2009, -1/+5This is SuperLight. The theory of which has been around for a century....
http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/milewski.htm - rolf, on 05/29/2009, -1/+5Stephen Hawking showed long ago that black holes eventually dwindle into nothing, thus they have to spit out something...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation - inactive, on 05/29/2009, -1/+5They spit out radiation... No matter whether or not they should... They do.
- inactive, on 05/29/2009, -0/+3I have about a half acre.
- drgmdp, on 05/29/2009, -0/+3melmac
- FreeTalkLIve, on 05/29/2009, -1/+4I never understood how a black hole could spit anything out.
Light can't escape a black hole, but cosmic rays can? - mandarin, on 05/29/2009, -0/+3Alright Hero Time!
- MayorMcCheapo, on 05/29/2009, -0/+3Those are SO the rays I wanna get hit with to become a superhero.
- donteatmyrice, on 05/29/2009, -0/+2Like Vulcans?
- pinkflyingpig, on 05/29/2009, -0/+2Maybe Manny Ramirez has something to do with Cosmic Ray.
- robertisaar, on 05/29/2009, -0/+2mark-lark
- Alwaysandnever, on 05/29/2009, -2/+4I hate to sound shallow, but this whole origin of the universe type of thing gets all too scientific and physic-y; how 'bout those Lakers?
- ThomasDyer, on 05/29/2009, -1/+3I believe the particles gain their energy from the ergosphere of the back hole. Look up the Lense-Thirring effect. The particles gain energy from the frame-dragging produced by a spinning massive object. They have very high energies because black holes can be very spinny and very massive.
- flangepiece, on 05/29/2009, -2/+3Maybe it's how they communicate with each other?
:) - walker4bc, on 05/29/2009, -1/+2Sadly, subatomic particles are slightly more consistent than the Lakers.
- robertisaar, on 05/29/2009, -0/+1i was expecting an Obama reference...
- jbnumba1, on 05/30/2009, -0/+1Exactly. I get that they want to come up with some number to give us perspective, but for all we know the universe is infinite.
- Drmoroe30, on 05/29/2009, -1/+2Energy of this magnitude, if properly harnessed and focused, could be manipulated to create worm holes. I believe that if one can manipulate space and matter in the higher dimensions it follows that one can create a region of space that is not moving relative to every other point in space. This, sirs and madams, is your gate to all that was, is and ever shall be.
- wesw02, on 05/30/2009, -0/+1I thought this was an already accepted concept ... At least they mentioned it on the History Channel's "The Universe".
- youannoyme, on 05/29/2009, -0/+1I haven't done the math in a while, but I'm pretty sure any appreciable frame dragging only happens inside the event horizon. But in any event all black holes have a strong radiation signature when they are "eating", not just the spinning ones.
- inactive, on 05/29/2009, -0/+1Dimension 5612
- RabidMicrowave, on 05/30/2009, -0/+0Whats with journalists and science? Why does everything have to have a headline straight out of Star Trek? If you took the time to write a comprehensive article, understanding the true nature of these events would be captivating enough. There is no need to sensationalize.
This article is nothing but deceptive/bad science. - detcade, on 05/30/2009, -0/+0November 09, 2007
Lame. I just saw a TV show on this today on Discovery channel. Old news. - Joodtimes, on 05/29/2009, -2/+2The "Oh My God" particle? Lame.
- eamonchaney, on 05/29/2009, -3/+2Not particles. Packets of energy called photons. No weight to them(but technically do have mass).
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