Within a span of less-than-24 hours, NASA has successfully drawn massive attention by dramatizing its latest discovery of a 30-year-old black hole.
No sooner had NASA announced a news conference "to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood," cyber space lit up with the news.
Some Chinese media quoted and hyped the news on t.sina.com.cn, the largest micro blog service in China, describing the discovery as "astounding to the humankind."
The juicy gossip became an instant sensation on the Internet, as it was re-tweeted hundreds of thousands of times with various comments guessing on the possible findings.
"They must have found some creepy ETs," a netizen with the online-name "black tea" said. "It is also likely to be UFOs."
Most answered in a similar fashion, but others shared negative feelings.
"Oh my god. Does it mean that 2012 is looming?" Kitty wrote on her micro blog.
A flurry of reaction continued among netizens. Many of them insisting on staying up to watch NASA's televised news conference for answer, though some Chinese media had scaled back their "astounding to humankind" rhetoric. NASA's website could not be accessed due to the level of interest last night.
The revelation of inter-galactic proportions turned out to be the discovery of the youngest black hole known to exist in the cosmic world, approximately 50 million light years from Earth. Many following the news gestured their disappointment online, saying they felt cheated.
"Give me my ET and UFO back!" Mo-tina cried.
But some amateur astronomers are thrilled by the black hole, claiming the discovery is a milestone in astronomy.
"I did not prepare myself for ETs, that is unreal for me. I am excited for the finding of the youngest black hole. " CheeryLiu said.
As of 1 pm, Beijing time, Tuesday, sina reported more than 141,000 entries related to the topic.
By Yan Weijue Source: chinadaily.com.cn
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