Deadly astronomical event not likely to happen in our galaxy

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The afterglow of GRB 030329 (white dot in center of image) as detected on April 15 2003 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues recently used data from this event and th ...
The afterglow of GRB 030329 (white dot in center of image), as detected on April 15, 2003, by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. Ohio State University astronomers and their colleagues recently used data from this event and three others to determine that a gamma ray burst is unlikely ever to occur in the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: The European Space Agency / NASA / Andrew Fruchter (STScI), Andrew Levan (Leicester Univ.), GOSH Collaboration.

Are you losing sleep at night because you're afraid that all life on Earth will suddenly be annihilated by a massive dose of gamma radiation from the cosmos? Well, now you can rest easy. Some scientists have wondered whether a deadly astronomical event called a gamma ray burst could happen in a galaxy like ours, but a group of astronomers at Ohio State University and their colleagues have determined that such an event would be nearly impossible.


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All News summaries for April 18, 2006

Arctic 'holds 90bln barrels of oil, mostly offshore'

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Within the Arctic circle there are 90 billion barrels of oil and vast quantities of natural gas waiting to be tapped, most of it offshore, the government-run US Geological Survey said.

Russian scientists begin trial exploration of world's deepest lake

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Russian scientists leading a submarine expedition to probe the world's deepest lake on Thursday carried out test dives ahead of the start of the operation next week, reports said.

Scientists solve 30-year-old aurora borealis mystery

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UCLA space scientists and colleagues have identified the mechanism that triggers substorms in space; wreaks havoc on satellites, power grids and communications systems; and leads to the explosive release of ...

The Quiet Explosion: Object intermediate between normal supernovae and gamma-ray bursts found

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A European-led team of astronomers are providing hints that a recent supernova may not be as normal as initially thought. Instead, the star that exploded is now understood to have collapsed into a black hole, producing a ...

Scientists break record by finding northernmost hydrothermal vent field

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Well inside the Arctic Circle, scientists have found black smoker vents farther north than anyone has ever seen before. The cluster of five vents – one towering nearly four stories in height – are venting ...
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