Posted on 02/06/2023 5:12:32 PM PST by entropy12
Billions of light years away, there is a giant ball of hot gas that is brighter than hundreds of billions of suns. It is hard to imagine something so bright. So what is it? Astronomers are not really sure, but they have a couple theories.
They think it may be a very rare type of supernova — called a magnetar — but one so powerful that it pushes the energy limits of physics, or in other words, the most powerful supernova ever seen as of today.
This object is so luminous that astronomers are having a really difficult time finding a way to describe it. “If it really is a magnetar, it's as if nature took everything we know about magnetars and turned it up to 11,” said Krzysztof Stanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State University and the team's co-principal investigator, comedically implying it is off the charts on a scale of 1 to 10.The object was first spotted by the All Sky Automated Survey of Supernovae (ASAS-SN or “assassin”), which is a small network of telescopes used to detect bright objects in the universe. Although this object is ridiculously bright, it still can’t be seen by the naked eye because it is 3.8 billion light years away.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.physics-astronomy.com ...
Run a pipe line to it…
.
Whoopi’s Cushion finally blew.
Leftover Christmas wrapping paper? That the dogs played with.
-PJ
How many million light years away? More than the big bang?
We can observe all sorts of phenomena, and even their effects. But that doesn’t tell us how they really work.
It’s said that ‘no man is an island’. I think that’s true of elemental forces, too.
“And the practical effect on my life?
Zero.”
So far.
Jesus?...................
She saw it in Haverty’s and just couldn’t resist!...................
Two ways this could be wildly wrong, both could apply:
1. The distance is much less than they calculate, meaning the radiated power is also much less than they calculate.
2. The object is not isotropic (radiating equally in all directions), but is instead creating a narrow beam aimed in our direction. Aka the flashlight effect. The initial miscalculation many years ago about AGN (Active Galactic Nuclei) was that they were isotropic, which would have meant the radiated power was ludicrous. Later they discovered black holes were driving the AGN we observed and the high power measured was because we were looking down the throat of the black hole jets.
You are probably more likely to be correct than wrong.
Based on using physics during my career as a mechanical engineer, I am well aware of measurement errors.
The way I understand big bang, it was as close to infinity as one can get, since the whole universe was formed with the big bang. I do not think the big bang was a local event, to measure distance from it.
Practical effect of 97.5% of space exploration on life of a middle class American is close to zero. It is all about curiosity and exercising the brain. Somewhat similar to conquering mount Everest in the early 1950’s. People risked their life to reach the summit. Did that change our lives? Mostly not.
Sure, why not? Believers are entitled to believe.
I kind of like my space pens, freeze-dried ice cream, and computer mouse...
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