X-Rays Spot Mass of Gas 5 Billion Times Larger Than Solar System

[norml]

Great Ball of Fire: X-Rays Spot Mass of Gas 5 Billion Times Larger Than Solar System

By John Johnson Jr., Times Staff Writer
June 17, 2006


Scientists have discovered the largest ball of hot gas ever found, a monstrous sphere of fire streaking through a galaxy cluster millions of light-years away.

"The size and velocity of this gas ball is truly fantastic," said physicist Alexis Finoguenov of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "This is likely a massive building block being delivered to one of the largest assembly of galaxies we know."

The gas ball, which was found using the European XMMNewton X-ray space observatory, is 3 million light-years across — 5 billion times the size of our solar system. Images show it as a circular X-ray glow with a stumpy comet-like tail.

The ball is moving through a galaxy cluster called Abell 3266, which contains hundreds of galaxies.

The gas ball and other gas formations are thought to be held together by unseen dark matter that many scientists think makes up as much as 90% of the universe.


snip


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-fireball17jun17,1,5849149.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

[rox63]

1. When did they

launch Rush Limbaugh into space? You'd think that would have been on the news... ;)

[wakeme2008]

2. Don't tell Cheney or we will be attacking it

:grr:

[enough]

3. Fantastic indeed.

snip>

Mark Henriksen, a physics professor at the Baltimore County campus and the coauthor of a paper describing the findings in the June issue of the Astrophysical Journal, said that as the gas ball races through the cluster, individual galaxies tear portions of it away to seed future star growth.

Henriksen contrasted the gas ball with a giant comet streaking through the heavens: A comet is made of ice and dust, but the gas ball's temperature is 100 million degrees — so hot it is invisible in optical light.

[XNASA]

4. Those guys must be some fart smel......I mean 'smart fellers'.

:)

[orwell]

5. That was expelled into space...

...during the Congressional "debate" about the non-binding WOT resolution...

[Ready4Change]

6. Evil Planetoid from Fifth Element, heading our way.

It's obvious to me. ;)

[rman]

7. picture, more info

XMM-Newton spots the greatest of great balls of fire
http://www.physorg.com/news69337256.html

This X-ray image shows a comet-like blob of gas about 5 million light-years long hurling through a distant galaxy cluster at nearly 1 000 kilometres per second. The 'comet' is confined to the orange regions in this image. The head is the lower right, with reddish areas. The tail fans outward because there is less pressure to confine it. The colour red refers to regions of lower entropy, a thermodynamical measure of disorder. The orange regions have higher entropy. This entropy map, different from brightness or temperature, helps scientists separate the cold and dense gas of the 'comet' from the hotter and more rarefied gas of the cluster. The data show with remarkable detail the process of gas being stripped from the comet's core (entropy goes up) and forming a large tail containing lumps of colder and denser gas. The 'comet' itself is a low-entropy gas; the ambient medium is a high entropy gas; the core of the comet has even lower entropy. The researchers estimate that a sun's worth of mass is lost every hour. Credit: University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)

[Random_Australian]

8. There are no numbers like astronomical numbers....

"The researchers estimate that a sun's worth of mass is lost every hour"

Absolutely nothing like it.