Most People Probably Won't Find This Interesting [message #139180] |
Fri, 18 February 2005 16:43 |
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Blazer
Messages: 3322 Registered: February 2003 Location: Phoenix, AZ
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General (3 Stars) Administrator/General |
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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/bright_flash_050218.html
This is, in a word, incredible.
For those to "arsed" to actually click the link, basically a dense magnetic neutron star, far far away let off explosion of gamma rays that is greater than anything we have ever seen or could imagine. If it was within 10 light years of Earth, we would all be dead now. The blast originated about 50,000 light-years away.
"The blast was 100 times more powerful than any other similar eruption witnessed"
"The star, named SGR 1806-20, spins once on its axis every 7.5 seconds, and it is surrounded by a magnetic field more powerful than any other object in the universe."
"The flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashed about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of energy."
"This is a once in a lifetime event, We have observed an object only 20 kilometers across [12 miles], on the other side of our galaxy, releasing more energy in a tenth of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years."
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