"I've tried to put this explosion into human terms and it's really, really difficult," co-author Melanie Johnston-Hollitt told BBC News.
"The best I can do is tell you that if this explosion continued to occur over the 240 million years of the outburst - which it probably didn't, but anyway - it'd be like setting off 20 billion, billion megaton TNT explosions every thousandth of a second for the entire 240 million years. So that's incomprehensibly big. Huge."
Telescopes detect 'biggest explosion since Big Bang'
The blast in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster left a cavity 15 times bigger than our Milky Way galaxy.www.bbc.co.uk
It really isn't but I so wish I could!!^^^^ Ridiculous. It's all I can say to that. Comprehension isn't possible.
If only a fraction of that energy could be captured.
Makes our fossil fuel, nuclear, wind and solar energy so insignificant.
Every picosecond is probably closer to the truth.I agree! Of all the supernovae that have ever gone off, we're suck with this particular one because of it's convenient timing. For all we know, there must be some far off star system, where a star must be going nova every hour or so.
~Engineer.AI
Every picosecond is probably closer to the truth.
There's about 1 supernova per millisecond in the observable Universe
As far as I can tell there are 39 supernovae in recorded history, the earliest being the year 185 by Chinese astronomers.How many have we observed?
As far as I can tell there are 39 supernovae in recorded history
The earliest 10 were all in the Milky Way galaxy.
I think we need a large pinch of salt here. The estimates for the number of galaxies in the observable universe have risen from 100 billion through 200 billion to a current estimate of 2 trillion, which of course will be subject to many further revisions. The rate of production of various types of supernovae vary from one every two centuries to three or four per century per galaxy. Given these facts, to produce a figure to millisecond accuracy seems optimistic at best. As far as the "entire universe" is concerned, we have no idea how big it is (unknowable? Infinite?), microsecond accuracy is not remotely possible.There's about 1 supernova per millisecond in the observable Universe, and about 3 every microsecond in the entire Universe. Some estimates go as high as 10x that number.
Well. That's me not sleeping tonight!!!There have been none in the Milky Way since 1868, so statistically we're probably due for one.
Oh, yes, absolutely. A supernova is pretty bright. For a few weeks it's nearly as bright as its galaxy. As I say, the remotest seen so far is 4.7 gigalightyears away. Our Galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across.Are you saying we have observed supernovae in other galaxies?
Good question.Thanks - so what is the ELI5 for why there are 1000 per second in the observable universe but we have only observed 39 ever, which is a lot fewer by my back of an envelope calculation.
One big apology here: I had no idea the numbers of observed supernovae was so high. The list I consulted must have been severely edited. Sorry.I think we need a large pinch of salt here. The estimates for the number of galaxies in the observable universe have risen from 100 billion through 200 billion to a current estimate of 2 trillion, which of course will be subject to many further revisions. The rate of production of various types of supernovae vary from one every two centuries to three or four per century per galaxy. Given these facts, to produce a figure to millisecond accuracy seems optimistic at best. As far as the "entire universe" is concerned, we have no idea how big it is (unknowable? Infinite?), microsecond accuracy is not remotely possible.
To answer some of @imightbewrong 'so questions as best I can:
All apart from one supernova detected in recent years have been extra-galactic. There are thousands. The most recent in our galaxy occurred about 140 years ago, detected by the Chandra telescope:
List of supernovae:
www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/lists/Supernovae.html
www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2019/snstats.html
The most distant supernova detected is at a distance of 10.5 billion light years:
Astronomers discover the most distant supernova ever detected
In a new study published February 8 in The Astrophysical Journal, an international team of astronomers confirmed the discovery of the most distant supernova ever detected. Located some 10.5 billion light-years from Earth, this massive star exploded when the universe was just a quarter of its...astronomy.com
Looks like it may be much ado about nothing:Will Betelgeuse Explode? After ‘Unprecedented’ Dimming The Giant Star Is Now Changing Shape
Spectacular new images reveal that red supergiant star Betelgeuse isn’t just dimming, but could also be changing shape.www.forbes.com
Distance to earth is 642.5 light years, that's 3.774e+15 miles and it's radius is 617.1 million kilometres!