back to article Cosmic Cannonball snapped blazing a bloody trail of star guts

The so-called Cosmic Cannonball, a neutron star moving at over three million miles an hour, has been captured in this new satellite image - or at least the red rose of supernova remnant that encases it. Puppis A supernova remnant captured by WISE Puppis A supernova remnant captured by WISE. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA …

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  1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Holmes

    1400 km/s

    Ok, that's an acceptable speed for wandering around the neighbourhood and leaving the galaxy altogether.

    Not going at anything near c though, so not a Puppeteer fleet getting the hell outta here.

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Happy

      +1

      For the reference.

    2. asdf
      Joke

      no worries

      We still got 20,000 years before the crap hits the fan.

    3. laird cummings

      Not at all sure Puppeteers would be hanging out in close proximity to supernovae, anyway. Mind you, they might set one off - from a 'safe' distance - just to see how the locals respond.

  2. Qwelak
    Alien

    Cannonball?

    My first thought when I saw the picrture was a giant cosmic fist.

    1. laird cummings
      Coat

      Junk-punch from God, eh..?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cosmic cannonball?

    Probably Mythbusters again.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd be careful exploring this object

    A note to those in the future: I'd be careful about exploring this object. If the radiation levels seem a bit high, check for antimatter.

    The one with the warranty check from General Products in the pocket.

    1. Graham Marsden
      Thumb Up

      @David D. Hagood

      Damn, you beat me to it! :-)

  5. easyk

    x-ray vision

    X-rays images work by emitting a beam of X-rays and looking at the shadow they cast on a detector. Does one with x ray vision emit such a beam and look for the reflections? Do surfaces/materials reflect much x-ray or is it all absorbed? Wouldn’t the emitter blind the receivers or would the X-ray source be pulsed? How big would your eyeballs have to be to be able to focus X-rays? I sense a thesis.

    1. david wilson

      >>"How big would your eyeballs have to be to be able to focus X-rays? "

      Well, I'd wonder /more/ about the fact that someone who had x-ray sensitive vision is supposed to be able to see the images, when it would seem they were taken with an infrared telescope.

    2. Ammaross Danan
      FAIL

      Overthinking....

      X-ray imaging works by looking at a shadow, since what we're looking at (bone and the like) doesn't normally emit enough x-rays to get a good image. HOWEVER, gas clouds, supernovae, and the like DO emit x-rays and thus would be quite detectable by someone who's vision worked in the x-ray band rather than in the "visible light" band. Basically, your vision would work the same, just objects would likely have a different "brightness" to them.

    3. Bill Neal
      Meh

      @easyk

      Forgot fluoroscopy...

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoroscopy

      ...which still leaves your head full of radiation if you look directly at the source.

      search "shoe store fluoroscopes"

      horrible idea.

      http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/599/were-those-old-shoe-store-fluoroscopes-a-health-hazard

      I still don't see how your eyes could focus on their own fluorescence.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      surely someone with X ray vision...

      ...would see objects in exactly the same way as we see objects. because their brain would sort out all the irrelevant technical details, just like ours does.

    5. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Boffin

      How big would you eyeballs have to be?

      Since X-rays have a shorter wavelength than visible light, your eyes wouldn't need to be any bigger to focus x-rays. Your lenses would need to be made of an x-ray refracting material though.

  6. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    "If you had X-ray vision..."

    I'd be distracted by certainly Earthly creatures...

    1. Avatar of They
      Happy

      You beat me to it.

      If you have X ray vision you don't look at the sky.

      1. John 62
        Coat

        wowsers! look at her fine

        bone structure

  7. Steve Knox
    WTF?

    Huh?

    The so-called Cosmic Cannonball, a neutron star moving at over three million miles an hour, has been captured in a new satellite image ...

    ...the neutron star, which is too faint to be seen in the photograph, ..."

    So it's been captured in an image that doesn't show it?

    I've captured an image of a leprechaun for you...

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Huh?

      Good point well made. I've made adjustments.

      C.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Angel

    It's the Mythbusters again!

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/08/mythbusters_mythfire_cannon/

    Maybe on this kind of cosmic scale, it's the divine Mythbusters? I guess in that case they should be named "Myth-Confirmers"?

    Here's a meme: "In space, myth busts you!!"

  9. VeganVegan
    Trollface

    cosmic cannonball

    flying out from the poop deck?

    <sorry, can't resist /sorry>

  10. Mediocrates

    Cosmic Cannonball?

    Sounds like a name for a circus performer.

  11. Adrian Midgley 1
    Thumb Down

    "four times closer to Earth"

    What does that mean?

    A quarter as far away?

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: "four times closer to Earth"

      According to NASA, yes: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20111209.html

      C.

  12. asdf
    Mushroom

    wow

    As a neutron star it could contain a solar mass or more and is the size of a city. Travelling at that speed imagine what direct hit on earth would do. Surly the gravity alone would probably rip the earth apart perhaps even before the collusion.

  13. A.A.Hamilton

    a neutron star moving at over three million miles an hour

    Teacher (to flatulent student): Stop that, Smith.

    Smith: Yes sir; which way did it go?

    Well, which way is this one going - that's all that matters.

  14. MrT
    Go

    Three million miles an hour...

    ...and still hogging the fast lane. See the flash in the top-left corner? That's an Astramax van driver trying to get past...

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