'Naked eye' gamma-ray burst was aimed almost directly at the Earth

Science Centric ^ | 10 September 2008 17:00 GMT | Stanislav P. Abadjiev

[bigheadfred]

I have been using a toilet most of my life. 0ne might think that by now I can be considered an expert, and that there would be nothing new. But I still find myself continually surprised and AMAZED...

[rdl6989]

Guilty!

[Swordmaker]

The team conclude that the extraordinary brightness of the 19 March burst arose from a narrow jet that shot material directly toward Earth at 99,99995 percent of the speed of light.

I wonder what the windage was... and talk about leading the target. The Earth was not even in the neighborhood when that gamma ray burst was "aimed" and "fired."

[Nik Naym]

“Do not stare at gamma burst with remaining eye”

[gleeaikin]

I don’t think this could be attributed to shutting down the solar spot activity. First of all the sun is in our solar system not billions of light years away. Secondly, the sun spot numbers were down before this happened.

However, SunkenCiv sent us a post about cosmic rays affecting the temperature of the stratosphere, and I wonder what affect gamma rays might have. Could this be part of the reason for our colder winter this year?