4 ms·
It's hypothesized that the Ordovician–Silurian extiction (end of trilobites) may have been caused by a GRB. This was ~450-440 million years ago. Here's to a 1 i
by e0m 12y ago
It's hypothesized that the Ordovician–Silurian extiction (end of trilobites) may have been caused by a GRB. This was ~450-440 million years ago. Here's to a 1 in 500 million year event! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovician%E2%80%93Silurian_extinction_event#Gamma_ray_burst_hypothesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovician%E2%80%93Silurian_ext...
- nitid_name 12y agoI had a paper published on a model for the GRB that would have caused that event! http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504158 http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0504158 When the GLAST (now James Webb Telescope) data came in, it pointed to a small (~1%) anisotropy of UHE GRBs toward high metalicity galaxies. Our model was completely isotropic. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to rework the anisotropy into our model's assumptions before our funding fell through. ... and that is the story of my brief experience as a scientist.