Re:Biggest explosion ever documented in the universe [pdf]
by _Understated_ on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @07:56AM
(#22545006)
On a side note, I remember watching an episode of How The Universe Works and they were talking about a massive explosion that was so big and gave off so much energy in two minutes, the analogy used was this:
It was the equivalent of 1000 trillion nuclear bombs going off every second for 100 billion years.
And that's what it put out in two minutes!
Mind blown!
Edit: I think the total energy was measured in Yottawatts. Oh and it was Michelle Thaller and Hakeem Oluseyi that quantified it if it makes any difference...
Re:Biggest explosion ever documented in the universe [pdf]
by contravariant on Wednesday March 11, 2020 @08:09AM
(#22545073)
The estimates in the article are on the order of 10^61 erg (not sure why they used this unit), which is around 10^54 Joule, or 10^42 kilotons. Even the biggest nukes are below 10^5 kiloton, so this would be about 10^37 of them.
Not that you'd ever get that many because 10^61 is about 10^7 solar masses worth of energy.
Edit: Apparently this monster was the infamous "Backyard" bomb - "since that particular design would probably kill everyone on Earth, there was no use carting it anywhere."
It was the equivalent of 1000 trillion nuclear bombs going off every second for 100 billion years.
And that's what it put out in two minutes!
Mind blown!
Edit: I think the total energy was measured in Yottawatts. Oh and it was Michelle Thaller and Hakeem Oluseyi that quantified it if it makes any difference...
Edit2: Found the episode here: https://youtu.be/BhME6wejT6U?t=1830
- A supernova, seen from as far away as the Sun is from the Earth, or
- The detonation of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball?
https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/
Not that you'd ever get that many because 10^61 is about 10^7 solar masses worth of energy.
https://www.rbth.com/opinion/2016/01/05/nuclear-overkill-the...
Edit: Apparently this monster was the infamous "Backyard" bomb - "since that particular design would probably kill everyone on Earth, there was no use carting it anywhere."