Mysterious radio waves emitted from nearby galaxy

[Smersh]

Story from New Scientist:

There is something strange in the cosmic neighbourhood. An unknown object in the nearby galaxy M82 has started sending out radio waves, and the emission does not look like anything seen anywhere in the universe before.

"We don't know what it is," says co-discoverer Tom Muxlow of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics near Macclesfield, UK.

The thing appeared in May last year, while Muxlow and his colleagues were monitoring an unrelated stellar explosion in M82 using the MERLIN network of radio telescopes in the UK. A bright spot of radio emission emerged over only a few days, quite rapidly in astronomical terms. Since then it has done very little except baffle astrophysicists.

It certainly does not fit the pattern of radio emissions from supernovae: they usually get brighter over a few weeks and then fade away over months, with the spectrum of the radiation changing all the while. The new source has hardly changed in brightness over the course of a year, and its spectrum is steady ...

Full story here.

It also has an apparent sideways velocity of four times the speed of light. The article goes on to suggest it might be some kind of black hole or a "microquasar." Any ideas, anyone?

 

[kg]

The apparent sideways movement 4 time the speed of light has been seen before. Nothing is moving faster than the speed of light, it just looks that way. It's actualy traveling nearly strait at us at almost the speed of light. The article is worded strangely. It seemed like the reporter walked into the observatory and just started asking questions like "Hey what's that?""I haven't the faintest idea!". I would say maybe wait untill something gets published in a actual science journal.

 

[Smersh]

The article does use the word "apparent," which would indicate that it only appears to be moving at 4x light speed. But how could an object that's coming almost straight at us appear to be moving at such a (physically impossible) velocity? If it's coming almost straight at us, I would have thought it would appear to be moving much more slowly, wouldn't it?

As for the reporting, perhaps New Scientist is employing ex Sun and Daily Mail journalists these days ...

 

[Boots09]

Cthulhu is coming.... :!:

 

[nimbus]

It's a consequence of the object travelling near light speed. An artifact of the measurement methods.

 

[centsworth_II]

...how could an object that's coming almost straight at us appear to be moving at such a (physically impossible) velocity?

Here's an explanation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superluminal_motion

 

[MeteorWayne]

A typically uninformative NS article. Not really any useful details about the object... some suggestions (like no X-rays), but mostly fluff.
It's also typical of articles released the day before a formal presentation is to be made at a conference. I've seen some of those here at SDC as well. I suppose the intent is to drum up interest in the presentation...me personally, I'd rather wait the extra day and find out something with some meat on the bones.

 

[CommonMan]

A typically uninformative NS article. Not really any useful details about the object... some suggestions (like no X-rays), but mostly fluff.
It's also typical of articles released the day before a formal presentation is to be made at a conference. I've seen some of those here at SDC as well. I suppose the intent is to drum up interest in the presentation...me personally, I'd rather wait the extra day and find out something with some meat on the bones.

And what is your thoughts about the comment of (appears to be moving at 4x light speed)?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Read the link above about superluminal motion. It's not that uncommon, and pretty easy to get the concept..

 

[Floridian]

The article does use the word "apparent," which would indicate that it only appears to be moving at 4x light speed. But how could an object that's coming almost straight at us appear to be moving at such a (physically impossible) velocity? If it's coming almost straight at us, I would have thought it would appear to be moving much more slowly, wouldn't it?

As for the reporting, perhaps New Scientist is employing ex Sun and Daily Mail journalists these days ...

I'm guessing, because as an object gets closer to us, it moves sideways past us quicker. For example. When you are standing. If a car passes right in front of you, its going to fly by. But if the car is half a mile away, its barely going to be moving sideways.

Now, considering that they are not factoring this part in when considering its sideways motion, it starts to make sense.

Also an object moves over more distance over a straight line. Since it is moving both sideways and directly towards us it is covering more distance, further exaggerating the apparent motion.


Found this in their article,

"The stuff in these jets is moving towards us at a slight angle and travelling at a fair fraction of the speed of light, and the effects of relativity produce a kind of optical illusion that makes the motion appear superluminal."

So I don't really understand the people hating on the authors, internet rage I guess.