A giant star may have destroyed itself in one of the rarest explosions

Posted by wglb 1 day ago

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Comments

Comment by chasil 6 hours ago

There is a wiki on pair-instability supernovas. Antimatter (in the form of positrons) is a key factor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair-instability_supernova

Comment by ben_w 1 hour ago

My favourite kind of supernova, due to their absurdity.

Comment by wglb 1 day ago

Arxiv reprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16487

Comment by ck2 6 hours ago

I just want to live long enough for space telescopes to evolve exponentially to observe kilonovas in the visual spectrum

I mean laser interferometers are an amazing advancement but just imagine seeing an earth-sized chunk of gold pop out of a kilonova (probably not my lifetime but eventually a human will see it happen)

Thank goodness this administration did not frack with Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, I thought the name alone would make them cancel it or rename it after him, wait maybe I shouldn't even mention that idea...

* https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telesc...

Comment by throwaway-away 43 minutes ago

Check out the aragoscope [1]. It's not planned, but we would already have the technology as it doesn't rely on fragile and heavy lenses to be sent in orbit.

If you look at image 17 you can see that a simulated aragoscope that is in our technical reach could already resolve the Jupiter moons from almost 23 light years away. I hope as well that we will have something comparable while I am still around.

[1] https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2014_phase_i...

Comment by vitally3643 50 minutes ago

Well I mean I would expect that the gold would be fired off in all directions as more of an atomic mist than a chunk

Comment by 33 minutes ago

Comment by bebeidjdkrjrjr 6 hours ago

[flagged]

Comment by wewtyflakes 6 hours ago

I know you are a bad-faith bot account, so this is not posed to you.

I am wondering why there are so many of these accounts popping up. They seemingly only exist to antagonize. What do their operators get out of that?

Comment by junon 6 hours ago

What do 14 year olds get out of trolling anything? A cheap grin and something to do on an after school evening.

Comment by detritus 5 hours ago

heh, funny you say that - I just yesterday almost bit at some obvious Nego-Trolling on here and remembered "Just don't engage".

Some people, for some reason at certain points in their life, just want to shit on other people's stuff, any way that they can, for... reasons.

I mean, clearly it's not to make themselves feel better, because how on Earth could that work?

There's no value in engaging, in any way whatsover. Sadly there's very little that can be done to prevent that form of human behaviour, without otherwise souring the experience for the generality.

*shrug, whatchagonnado?

Comment by AnimalMuppet 4 hours ago

It can make them feel better by giving them a chance to look down on someone else. (The "looking down" doesn't have to be the content of the post - the act of trolling is a form of looking down on someone.)

Comment by scns 4 hours ago

> It can make them feel better by giving them a chance to look down on someone else.

That's the idea but it does not work. Self esteem is still negative afterwards

Comment by MadnessASAP 1 hour ago

Whether or not it works isn't what matters. It's whether or not the perpetrator, consciously or not, believes it works.

Comment by nutjob2 5 hours ago

> I mean, clearly it's not to make themselves feel better, because how on Earth could that work?

When you're really, really angry you look for an outlet. Some people kick the dog, some abuse their gf/wife/kids, others troll on online forums.

Comment by detritus 5 hours ago

Yeah, I get that. But does it actually make them feel better?

What do they say about sugaring trauma?

Comment by nutjob2 5 hours ago

Welcome to the general public. You'll meet all the people you go to great lengths to avoid in the real wold, online.

Comment by timwis 5 hours ago

Dark Forest theory, anyone?

Comment by chasil 2 hours ago

Pair-instability can only happen in low-metalicity surroundings.

The big bang created hydrogen, helium, and small amounts of lithium. Any higher elements are created by stars, and a significant presence of those "metals" will take a star down a different path than pair-instability.

Low-metalicity environments are not likely to be friendly to life.

Comment by groos 5 hours ago

It was a supergiant, hence died at a young age, and unlikely to have evolved life of any kind in its system.

Comment by tgrowazay 4 hours ago

That’s what Singer’s civilization wants you to think before they send a Photoid or Dual-Vector foil (but later would require a supervisor’s approval which is a PITA)

Comment by dotancohen 1 hour ago

  > before they send a Photoid
Plenty of services require a Photo ID nowadays.