Post by Flying Monkeys on Nov 20, 2019 18:55:56 GMT
Summary:
Full article:
www.theguardian.com/science/2019/nov/20/big-star-energy-record-breaking-explosion-recorded
Sounds counter-intuitive that a star that has 'run out of fuel' then goes on to produce so much energy but it gives you a clear idea, though, of how much non-fuel the star has produced during its lifetime as a nuclear reactor.
When gigantic stars run out of fuel they collapse under their own gravity and, in a last hurrah, send out a blast of light and matter in the most violent known explosions in the universe.
Now astronomers have discovered that these cataclysmic events, known as gamma ray bursts, release roughly twice as much energy as previously thought.
Gamma ray bursts happen in the sky roughly once a day and a typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the sun will in its entire 10bn-year lifetime.
They are thought to be the result of gigantic stars, 30-50 times the mass of the sun, collapsing under their own gravity when they run out of fuel. At this point they transform into a black hole or a small, dense neutron star and, in the process, blast out jets of radiation and matter at close to the speed of light.
The emission from the initial jet lasts only a few seconds, but an afterglow, which happens as the jet slows down in the surrounding interstellar medium, can be observed for hours after the event.
The burst was 4.5bn light years away.
Now astronomers have discovered that these cataclysmic events, known as gamma ray bursts, release roughly twice as much energy as previously thought.
Gamma ray bursts happen in the sky roughly once a day and a typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the sun will in its entire 10bn-year lifetime.
They are thought to be the result of gigantic stars, 30-50 times the mass of the sun, collapsing under their own gravity when they run out of fuel. At this point they transform into a black hole or a small, dense neutron star and, in the process, blast out jets of radiation and matter at close to the speed of light.
The emission from the initial jet lasts only a few seconds, but an afterglow, which happens as the jet slows down in the surrounding interstellar medium, can be observed for hours after the event.
The burst was 4.5bn light years away.
Full article:
www.theguardian.com/science/2019/nov/20/big-star-energy-record-breaking-explosion-recorded
Sounds counter-intuitive that a star that has 'run out of fuel' then goes on to produce so much energy but it gives you a clear idea, though, of how much non-fuel the star has produced during its lifetime as a nuclear reactor.
