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back to article Major maser microwaves Hubble

The name's boring but the science isn't: an entire galaxy spied by the Hubble Space Telescope is acting as a microwave-emitting laser, or maser. Think of the process going on here: in a laser, molecules in a crystal are stimulated to add energy to electrons, and when they shed that energy, they emit coherent light (or, at …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wrong units

    The 370 light year typo is already reported to the author.

    Probably meant to say 370 parsecs...

    0 0 Reply
    1. Tom 64
      Reply Icon

      Re: Wrong units

      Nope, its millions of lightyears.

      I'd be a little worried if this pair of interacting galaxy cores was just a couple of systems over.

      It'd be like planet Earth being put in the microwave.

      12 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Wrong units

        I knew that, but I was attempting a joke. Too subtle I guess.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Trigonoceps occipitalis
      Reply Icon

      Re: Wrong units

      Aren't Parsecs a measure of time?

      2 0 Reply
  2. redpawn

    No doubt reading

    a "universal" optical disc.

    6 0 Reply
  3. eldakka
    Alien

    Gas cloud in the right state - pfft.

    Active galaxy nucleus - pfft.

    What we are seeing is the residue of a planet-destroying maser that missed it's target and after 370 (mllion?) lightyears this is all that's left.

    0 1 Reply
  4. Big_Boomer Silver badge

    Death Star

    It's a Death Star that has missed it's target, which is unsurprising given that most Stormtroopers can't hit the planet they are standing on.

    15 2 Reply
  5. Chris G

    A masing galaxy amazes

    Geezers gazing at galaxies.

    11 0 Reply
    1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme
      Reply Icon

      Re: A masing galaxy amazes

      You should apply to write headlines for El Reg. Bonus point for the alliterative sub-head as well.

      4 0 Reply
  6. Shaha Alam

    how do we know they're merging?

    they could just be awkwardly sliding past each other trying not to make eye contact.

    5 0 Reply
  7. Daedalus

    Pedantry

    Technically a "laser" is a light-emitting maser, since the maser was discovered/invented/named 7 years before the laser, which was originally (and pedantically incorrectly) called an "optical maser"

    Let's go for the record in thumbs-down, shall we?

    10 0 Reply
    1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Pedantry

      Sorry not contributing to your downvote record. Have an upvote instead.

      5 1 Reply
  8. GitMeMyShootinIrons

    Name for a microwave emitting galaxy...

    Popty-ping

    It's a galactic size popcorn popper!

    2 0 Reply
  9. Alistair
    Coat

    This thread is ironic.

    Star wars mentioned (check)

    Storm Troopers mentioned (check)

    Death Star mentioned (check)

    Popcorn mentioned (check)

    Family night out to see Rogue One (booked already) (check)

    1 0 Reply
    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: This thread is ironic.

      ...and the Kessle Run was obliquely alluded to. (upvoted!)

      1 0 Reply
  10. Faux Science Slayer

    97% of the Universe is composed of math particulates and hyperdense equations

    doesn't leave much room for the rest of it....

    1 1 Reply
  11. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Just an astonishing natural phenomena

    A whole galaxy operating under stimulated emission.

    Even more so when until recently MASER meant IIRC Ammonia cooled to Liquid Helium temperatures.

    Clearly this is not that type of MASER.

    Astonishing science.

    0 0 Reply

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