Science: Nasa satellite 'blinded by biggest ever star explosion seen in space'

Frank Booth

Poster Extraordinaire
This is a nice story that should make you pause for a minute and see how insignificant we can be in the face of such gargantuan power.

This is from wiki:

It has been hypothesized that a gamma-ray burst in the Milky Way could cause a mass extinction on Earth.[2]

Nasa satellite 'blinded by biggest ever star explosion seen in space'

A Nasa satellite was temporarily blinded after the brightest explosion of a star ever witnessed in space, officials admitted.

"It was like trying to use a rain gauge and a bucket to measure the flow rate of a tsunami. This burst is one for the record books."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/...iggest-ever-star-explosion-seen-in-space.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst

The sources of most GRBs are billions of light years away from Earth, implying that the explosions are both extremely energetic (a typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will in its entire 10 billion year lifetime) and extremely rare (a few per galaxy per million years[1]). All observed GRBs have originated from outside the Milky Way galaxy, although a related class of phenomena, soft gamma repeater flares, are associated with magnetars within the Milky Way. It has been hypothesized that a gamma-ray burst in the Milky Way could cause a mass extinction on Earth.[2]
 
Thanks, now I feel better about being on a planet that compared to others could be a speck of dust :mad:
 
an AMAZING picture there I've seen some nice space shots this one is a great release of energy the likes of which has never been seen as far as we know...very impressive thanks for posting good to know
 
Something like this? Basically if one happens within about 100,000 light years and the burst is aimed at us we will be cooked.

grbsn.jpg




This is the source. A red giant, which what our sun will be in 5 billion years and will extent all the way to Venus, runs out of fuel when it stops fusing atoms after it produces iron - iron does not fuse like hydrogen- and it collapses into a black hole depending on the mass of the star. Here is a picture of that.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/gamma_h3.jpg

an AMAZING picture there I've seen some nice space shots this one is a great release of energy the likes of which has never been seen as far as we know...very impressive thanks for posting good to know
 
The star was nowhere close to us. The Gamma Ray Burst occurred 5 billion years ago, so it took place a little less than halfway across the universe since the universe is 14 billion years old. If it occurred anywhere close like in the Andromeda galaxy which is 2.5 million light years away it would have caused severe damage to anything close, for sure any form of life within the entire Milky Way would be long gone.

"Scientists at Nasa?s Goddard Space Flight Centre, in Maryland, said the explosion of X-rays that followed came from a star that died five billion years ago, far beyond our own Milky Way galaxy."

Light from the flare-up, titled GRB 100621A, reached Earth on June 21 after it had travelled nearly halfway across the universe.

knowing how bright that explosion was...that star mustve been huge or very close
 
I wouldn't be to worried, by the time our sun becomes a red giant then a white dwarf, we'll either be extinct or be several thousand light years away
 
Something like this? Basically if one happens within about 100,000 light years and the burst is aimed at us we will be cooked.

grbsn.jpg




This is the source. A red giant, which what our sun will be in 5 billion years and will extent all the way to Venus, runs out of fuel when it stops fusing atoms after it produces iron - iron does not fuse like hydrogen- and it collapses into a black hole depending on the mass of the star. Here is a picture of that.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/media/images/gamma_h3.jpg

Atleast it would be quick and painless lol
 
Back
Top