![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dec. 21st, 2004
So I just caught a Nova program on PBS.
And the show was about novas, as in stars that explode when they run low on fuel. Now we all understand the concept of the supernova. This show discussed the proof behind "hypernovas"
Yes thats right, the hypernova.
A star 30 times the mass of our own sun. A star so massive that a black hole forms inside it as it burns and ka-boom. A explosion so powerful we can detect the gamma radiation from 12,000,000,000 light years distant. So powerful that if one went off within 200 light years, the radiation would incinerate earth and the shockwave would strip the atmosphere clean off the planet (200 years after the explosion that is).
As luck would have it, there are no such stars near earth and the chance of such a thing is nil.
But..life is difficult enough to cling to without this new little gem out there. Auto accidents, food poisoning, nuclear war, killer flus, asteriods, cancer, flying bullets, airline accidents.
Now the hypernova. Great, juuuuuusssst great.
I say we build a giant rocket motor on one side of the planet a steer a course for the sun and just get it over with.
Stop squirming. :P
And the show was about novas, as in stars that explode when they run low on fuel. Now we all understand the concept of the supernova. This show discussed the proof behind "hypernovas"
Yes thats right, the hypernova.
A star 30 times the mass of our own sun. A star so massive that a black hole forms inside it as it burns and ka-boom. A explosion so powerful we can detect the gamma radiation from 12,000,000,000 light years distant. So powerful that if one went off within 200 light years, the radiation would incinerate earth and the shockwave would strip the atmosphere clean off the planet (200 years after the explosion that is).
As luck would have it, there are no such stars near earth and the chance of such a thing is nil.
But..life is difficult enough to cling to without this new little gem out there. Auto accidents, food poisoning, nuclear war, killer flus, asteriods, cancer, flying bullets, airline accidents.
Now the hypernova. Great, juuuuuusssst great.
I say we build a giant rocket motor on one side of the planet a steer a course for the sun and just get it over with.
Stop squirming. :P
