Supernovae are far more bigger and brighter and deadlier than you would assume!

Firstly I should say that I am a huge fan of Randall Munroe's XKCD and his newer scientific-based blog What If? - which takes "questions to science" to a whole new level of awesome!

Last week he posted something about supernovae. Well, most of you, I assume, know already a lot about supernovae - giant stars, exploding, seen from earth as a quite bright star. Nice.


Well, no.

A supernova is different, and I want to quote Munroe "However big you think supernovae are, they're bigger than that".

He did some calculations and came up with this nice, little comparison:

What would be brighter - the sun exploding (if she could, which she can't and we should be very, very thankful for that) as a supernova

or...

an exploding H-bomb, PRESSED AGAINST YOUR EYEBALL!

..
.

Yepp, you surely guessed the right thing: the supernova would be brighter. By about a billion times!


Okay. A supernova is really, really bright (Whatever kind of spectrum he means, I doubt that there would be a huge difference between a comparison in the percievable part for the human eye or over the whole spectrum). What else is far more creepy than you would have ever thought?



Would Captain Kirk have a chance to escape by hiding in earth's shadow and give the Enterprise a full start when he sees the moon flashing brightly?

Nope.

Because even if he would go all "Beide dreimalwahnsinnige und durch." "Jawohl, Herr Kaleu!" and accelerate instantly to faster-than-light, all on board would still die from radiation poisoning. How?! They were protected in earth's shadow, right?

Nope.

Neutrinos are passing through earth without nearly any resistance. And there are so many neutrinos produced by the supernova, that you would DIE BY NEUTRINO-RADIATION, up to a distance of over 2 AE!

The facts on What If?

reply to post by ManFromEurope



What is an AE?

Why am I writing about this now and here?

Because nature is a beast.

Right now I and millions of other Germans are awaiting a quite huge storm (more than Bf 12, about 200km/h windspeeds are estimated for the next night). Want to have a look at one of the more exposed islands (Sylt, to be precise)?

Webcam overlooking the beach

The last storm, about 4 weeks ago, took out many trees. Still, there will be more to fall today, as huge breaches are blown in the woods. We just have to wait it out, I guess.

CenTheBear
reply to post by ManFromEurope

 

What is an AE?

Oops, AU - astronomical unit, distance earth-sun.

reply to post by ManFromEurope


I always have trouble getting my head around the weather because on the South coast of Devon we have beautiful calm weather.

Thanks for a fascinating post, I can'[t remember where but I read that we are now going through a very 'busy' part of the universe with lots of debris and meteors flying about. The article also mentioned that our weather would be reflecting this and it was not wrong. Throughout my life I had never heard thunder like the crashes and noise we had from the last thunder and lightening storm, I actually thought a bomb had exploded it was so loud.

I know the ancients were always focused on the sky and what was happening there. When one reads about the affect your tell us of supernovas, I am not surprised about the star gazing and working out of cycles they did. Perhaps part of our shock today at the weather is because we are so removed from their knowledge and watchfulness. Look forward to reading more of your posts.

Interesting stuff S&F

Now thats out the way

Supernovae are far more bigger and brighter and deadlier than you would assume

I dont know thats true, I cant think of anything bigger, brighter or deadlier than an exploding star LOL

Edit: S&F issue sorted

IkNOwSTuff
Interesting stuff S&F

Now thats out the way

Supernovae are far more bigger and brighter and deadlier than you would assume

I dont know thats true, I cant think of anything bigger, brighter or deadlier than an exploding star LOL

Uhm, I am really not that keen on flags and stars (shiny!!), but.. You didn't give me a star, I got exactly one about 90mins ago, along with the lonely flag..

But I don't want to naggle, as I said, I don't care for s&f (SHINY!!!). I just want to say WOW - you could have imagined that this *BANG* would be brighter than a nuclear bomb? I was stunned as I read that..


EDIT: wrong, oh so wrong have I read your posting.. Yepp. Still no s&f, but I misunderstood your point about the exploding star.