Cosmic Explosion Among the Brightest in Recorded History

NASA ^ | 18 February 2005 | Staff

[Erik Latranyi]

Something you don't see every day.

...and thankfully we do not see this every day or we would run out of days very quickly as a species!

A severe gamma burst could eradicate all life on earth. Of course, it probably would not be strong enough to kill us all at once, but enough to make us linger for a few days in pain.......

Hey! It's Friday! Think happy thoughts!

[theFIRMbss]

>Scientists have detected a flash of light from across the Galaxy so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a second.

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[RobRoy]

From the article:

"The light was brightest in the gamma-ray energy range, far more energetic than visible light or X-rays and invisible to our eyes."

[green pastures]

Dr. Banner, paging Dr. Banner...

[Flyer]

The light was brightest in the gamma-ray energy range

Right, but it also said "The apparent magnitude was brighter than a full moon"

Inquiring minds want to know!

[RobRoy]

Wow! You are right. It did not specifically say that none of the spectrum was visible to the naked eye.

I usually nail other people for making these kind of assumptions and you nailed me! Good job!

Now I have to kill you.... 8^>

[polymuser]

I had advance warning and played it safe.

[Flyer]

At least have the decency to send flowers to my funeral.

[RadioAstronomer]

An interesting item of note is that the constellations we see are made up of the brightest stars. Even in the same constellation these stars are at different distances from the Earth. Some may be dimmer than the others, however, being closer they are just as bright as a larger one further away. The brightness of a star is called its magnitude. There are two ways astronomers measure magnitude: Apparent Magnitude and Absolute Magnitude.

The Apparent Magnitude is how bright a star appears to us here on the Earth. The Absolute Magnitude is how bright a star would appear if it were exactly ten parsecs away from the Earth. (Close to 33 light years).

Two notes:

1) Apparent magnitude is usually denoted with a small “m” and absolute magnitude uses a capital “M”.

2) The magnitude scale is backwards of what you might think, the larger the number the fainter the object.

[Rudder]

It hit here on December 27th. When do you suppose it left "there?"

[RobRoy]

I'm thinking at least a week, not counting bathroom stops.

Maybe more.

[Flyer]

We had a full moon on December 26, so it wouldn't have been naked eye noticeable anyway.

[PatrickHenry]

It hit here on December 27th. When do you suppose it left "there?"

About 50,000 years ago. The article says:

... two of many observatories that observed the event, arising from neutron star SGR 1806-20, about 50,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.

[frogjerk]

The flash was brighter than anything ever detected from beyond our Solar System and lasted over a tenth of a second.

I need to think back to where I was on December 27

DAMN! I missed it, I blinked...DO OVER!

[PatrickHenry]

Of course, if the universe is only 6,000 years old, that would change my previous answer.

[Rudder]

Oh my! I don't think the literal genesis crowd can explain this one, unless, of course, they've found a way to accelerate the speed of light while we weren't paying attention.

[Allan]

Bump

[coloradan]

Something you don't see every day.

Considering it was invisible gamma rays, it's something you'll continue to not see any day.

[Thinkin' Gal]

gamma-ray bursts ping

[Strategerist]

Oh my! I don't think the literal genesis crowd can explain this one, unless, of course, they've found a way to accelerate the speed of light while we weren't paying attention.

Oh, the YECs have various "The speed of light has radically changed" theories, actually.