A Big Boom in a Quiet Galaxy

ScienceNOW Daily News ^ | 14 May 2008 | Phil Berardelli

[neverdem]

I don’t think I ever heard this before. Worth mulling over in a philosophical and religious sense, as well as a scientific sense, if this is accurate.

The discovery helps fill in the deficit of supernovas for the Milky Way, where the rate of explosions appears much lower than in similar spiral galaxies.

"This lack is a significant puzzle," Reynolds said. Either astronomers have not been able to identify the remnants, or the Milky Way is somehow different.

Here's another reference to the Milky Way's relative dearth of supernovas, FWIW.

[DB]

Thank you.

[AFPhys]

DB: you’re welcome.

neverdem: There’s something really screwy about this, though. If all of a sudden we are “seeing” more supernovas in the Milky Way, I suspect that those same techniques applied to other galaxies will see more there, too. If so, the Milky Way will still be a “significant puzzle” and remain “different”.

If this proves to be so, it will remain worth mulling over, as I said.