Most Powerful Explosion In Universe Could Be Seen From Earth

Whether or not you are a space enthusiast, it’s hard to not be impressed by the recent discovery of what is the most powerful blast in the universe ever observed. The gamma-ray burst was discovered last Wednesday by NASA’s Swift satellite which runs an advanced algorithm that can intelligently detect anything out of the ordinary, including these gamma-ray blasts.

The bursts, named GRB 080319A – D, proved to be the most powerful blasts ever observed. So powerful in fact, that it could have been seen with the naked eye if looking at the sky at exactly the right moment. The fact that the explosion occurred at a distance of half the universe away makes it only more spectacular.

As if the blast wasn’t impressive enough already, the brightness of the event is also staggering. After running through their calculations, scientists discovered that the second burst (GRB 080319B) had over 2.5 million times the luminosity of the brightest supernova ever observed. Truly staggering.

It’s unclear what exactly caused this incredible brightness, but most theorists think that gamma-ray bursts produce two narrow jets of matter and energy, so we may have been lucky to look right into the cannon’s barrel. But, says Vreeswijk’s colleague Jens Hjorth, “in this business, getting surprised ceases to surprise you”.

Source: New Scientist