Rumor Mill Churns With NASA’s Upcoming Announcement

by Nancy Atkinson on May 9, 2008


This past Wednesday, NASA announced they have scheduled a press conference for next Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to reveal the discovery of an object in our galaxy that astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This gives everyone an entire week to speculate, ruminate and in some cases go off the deep end about what the announcement will entail. On the internet the conjecture goes from logical (intermediate or supermassive black holes) to wacko (aliens, Planet X, or something to do with the Mayan calendar) to hilarious (the Death Star or socks lost in the dryer.)

NASA says the finding was made by combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with ground-based observations, so some of those are obviously wrong (are socks visible in X-ray?).

We’re an impatient species, always wanting to know a secret and know it now, so NASA may have erred in giving us so much time to wonder. And surely, the news will leak out before the 14th because we’re also a species that likes to spill the beans.

To pass the time until the 14th, if you’d like to take a stab at what the announcement might be, post a comment. Intelligent and non-conspiracy theory guesses only, please.

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  • http://cosmos4u.blogspot.com Daniel Fischer

    Guess what, one of the commenters got the correct answer – which has been made available to serious science writers today already. Under a strict embargo, of course, so I won’t tell you which one is the winner …

    Daniel

  • Michael Hunt

    So, after all these years, they finally found dark matter and Klingons around Uranus.

  • IMSA12

    I hope they’re announcing the discovery of that monolith that we should have discovered back in 2001, if humankind had progressed as Arthur C. Clarke anticipated.

  • shaula359

    It is a high likelihood of something to do with the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy., or perhaps conclusive evidence that frame-dragging predicted by Einstein is correct. Other possibilities would be conclusive evidence of the existence of dark matter and dark energy.

    Maybe the universe is really quarked up to what it is suppose to be.

  • endlessmountain

    I wish they would hurry up and tell us that Planet X (NIBIRU) to be real or not. We are a highly evolved and intelligent species and need to know the truth as time is of the essence.

  • keith kaos

    looks to me like they have discovered that we actually live in a bianary solor system and there is a brown dwarf start in an eliptical orbit around what we know as the curent solar system . and elvis, jesus and l ron hubbard are all going to be resserrected and rule the earth for a thousand years and raise bunnys and grow chia pet herb gardens and do there laudry in chocolate rives and there will be bunnies. lots of bunnys.

  • jacquie

    Maybe they found the golf ball.

  • Mike K

    The have found a black monolith in orbit around Jupiter.

  • J. Kirk

    K H A A A A A N ! ! ! !

  • BNarb

    POSTED:JamesB Says:
    May 10th, 2008 at 8:10 am
    Carlos- “more evidence of Dark matter”?? They’ve yet to find ANY evidence of dark matter or of dark energy!!

    Anyone who does not believe in “dark energy” has not met my kids! And “dark Matter”, their rooms are full of it.

    And please, no bunnies!

    But seriously, The “GREAT HUNT” was for what the bunnies left behind…the plastic Easter Eggs full of teeny tiny galaxies that contain teeny tiny intelligent alien life….Who knows where else they may be found (NASA found this one in Jersey)….I WANT TO BELIEVE…..

  • alphonso richardson

    Come on, some one probably found a doughnut shop where a deli used to be (damn those old out of date maps!!)

  • Wistful

    Planet X.

  • http://www.triptosane.com Mike D

    Why is it ridiculous to conjecture some sort of alien evidence? Not that I think NASA is ready to reveal such a thing- but are you living in ther 1950s when this sort of thing was laughed at? Get with it people.

  • Kullat Nunu

    The discovery is a ~100 years old supernova remnant in our galaxy.

  • Kullat Nunu
  • Dante

    Damn! I was really hoping they had finally found that one girl I banged back in college….

  • keith kaos

    james b wins! sadly no bunnies or elvis. damn.

  • http://www.nancyatkinson.com Nancy Atkinson

    Congrats James B!!

  • Muhammad Azhar (Pakistan)

    I think x-rays are not needed for near Solar System inspection, so it could be something near the centre of Galaxy. May be the discovery of mysterious Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Could also be an interstellar Black Hole of small size.

    Or just simply could be a supernova ramnent near Galaxy’s centre in dust.

  • http://ufomafia.com Greg B

    I told you guys this announcement would be an “Egghead Only” type of anouncement because only NASA would get excited about this to the point they assumed we’d give to snots about it worthy of a press conference with suspense. It’s a great scientific discovery and will add to the knowledge of the workings of the cosmos, but as an attention grabber it’s about as exciting as watching socks dry.

    We can see 46,000 light years away but NASA still can’t tell us if there are planets at the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri.

    Go figure.

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