Huge 'star-quake' rocks Milky Way

[Dover]

Huge 'star-quake' rocks Milky Way


Astronomers say they have been stunned by the amount of energy released in a star explosion on the far side of our galaxy, 50,000 light-years away.
The flash of radiation on 27 December was so powerful that it bounced off the Moon and lit up the Earth's atmosphere.

The blast occurred on the surface of an exotic kind of star - a super-magnetic neutron star called SGR 1806-20.

If the explosion had been within just 10 light-years, Earth could have suffered a mass extinction, it is said.


"We figure that it's probably the biggest explosion observed by humans within our galaxy since Johannes Kepler saw his supernova in 1604," Dr Rob Fender, of Southampton University, UK, told the BBC News website.

One calculation has the giant flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashing about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We have observed an object only 20km across, on the other side of our galaxy, releasing more energy in a 10th of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years," said Dr Fender.

Fast turn

The event overwhelmed detectors on space-borne telescopes, such as the recently launched Swift observatory.

This facility was put above the Earth to detect and analyse gamma-ray bursts - very intense but fleeting flashes of radiation...cont'd

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4278005.stm

[htuttle]

1. "If the explosion had been within just 10 light-years"

"...Earth could have suffered a mass extinction, it is said."

Please forgive this silly layperson's question, but what would have killed us? The radiation, right?

There wouldn't be a 'blast wave' would there? I'm mean, it's in space, so there's nothing to 'wave' from the 'blast', right?

On a tangential issue, this is why I get confused about descriptions of plans to move incoming asteroids with nuclear weapons. I've read about plans to explode them 'close' to the asteroid to push it out of the way.

What medium is doing the pushing/transferring of the kinetic energy in a situation like that in the vacuum of space?

Is it the sheer force of radiation that would actually push a physical object (like a souped up version of the solar-sail propulsion idea)?

[SlackJawedYokel]

2. Yes and yes.

Is it the sheer force of radiation that would actually push a physical object (like a souped up version of the solar-sail propulsion idea)?
Yea, eventually...

(I'm assuming this is the concept behind the asteroid thingy... "stuff" surrounding the nuke would have an effect on the asteroid).

But the mass extinction would undoubtedly be caused by the nastier spectrum of radiation(reaching us at the speed of light) as well whatever effect that radiation had on our sun.
So, no, no "blast wave" like in the 50's "Atom Bombs Are Your Friend" films. :D

Cletus

[Swede]

3. On the Discovery channel an astronomer said it would've cooked off

our ozone layer. We'd have been bombarded with radiation from the sun.

[NationalEnquirer]

5. Radiation, particles..

Radiation and particles, but first the radiation, particles traveling a BIT slower.

As for the nuclear bombs and the asteroids, the idea is to detonate them close to the asteroid, causing the heat from the explosion (radiation) to vaporize part of the surface of the asteroid, the "jet" this produces thus pushing the asteroid sideways..

[phantom power]

4. We are too vulnerable, trapped on this single planet.