star's explosion blinded the satellite

Brightest Star Explosion Witnessed Blinds Satellite
July 16, 2010 05:07 AM EDT (Updated: July 16, 2010 05:09 AM EDT)
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In a world of wonders, the brightest star explosion ever witnessed blinds the very satellite prepped to capture it. This is the first time in human history that such an event was captured partially since the very satellite set up to capture it's beauty was also temporarily blinded.

The amazing gamma-ray burst of the star's explosion blinded the satellite momentarily. Although the gamma ray bursts and X-ray explosions occurred an astounding 5 billion years ago, our wee satellite was effected and busted for a while...

AMAZING! It took this long for those rays to reach and break our minuscule Earthlings equipment.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's principal investigator, Neil Gehrels, said, "The intensity of these X-rays was unexpected and unprecedented. Just when we were beginning to think that we had seen everything that gamma-ray bursts could throw at us, this burst came along to challenge our assumptions about how powerful their X-ray emissions can be. The burst was so bright when it first erupted that our data-analysis software shut down."

I find all this absolutely fascinating! For the brightest star explosion ever witnessed to blind a satellite is truly incredible to me! I hope that we will learn more about Gamma, alpha, whatever-a rays there are out there! Seriously, for something such as this to occur means there are way more dangerous things out there for us to worry about.



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