visible to the naked eye

Sesshoumaru

http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13520-universes-most-powerful-blast-visible-to-the-naked-eye.html

I was reading this and just thinking wow! So far away my mind can't even begin to comprehend 7.5 billion light years in distance and visible to the naked eye when it went boom!

AlmightyCushion

Man, that is insane. Imagine how big would that explosion have to be for it to be seen 7.5 billion light years away. It was 2.5million times bigger than the most powerful supernova ever seen according to that site. Things like this will never cease to amaze me.

The Hill Billy

I got all hot & bothered when I read this this morning as I had seen a flash in the same area of sky on the evening of the 19th too. But then I saw that these GRBs ran from 05:45 to 17:05.

Some techy info here on timings & magnitudes.

davidoco

Sesshoumaru wrote: »

So far away my mind can't even begin to comprehend 7.5 billion light years in distance and visible to the naked eye when it went boom!

For those of you who like their distances in miles

Here’s what 7.5 billon light years looks like in miles


41,216,000,000,000,000,000,000 MILES AWAY



(give or take a few trillion for rounding)

For comparision purposes the Voyager 1 spacecraft launced in 1977 has travelled out into space a distance so far of 8,500,000,000 miles so if it is pointing in the right direction it might reach that supernova in about 2 millon years.

Evil Phil

2 million? It's 4.7 billion light years away.

Hellm0

As a lay-astronomer and quack I propose this to be not the work of celestial bodies but rather our lord in heaven* relieving himself of a gas problem.

Divine farts ftw!

(*I'm athiest)

Kevster

davidoco wrote:

41,216,000,000,000,000,000,000 MILES AWAY

...ah good - just a stroll to the local chip-shop and back again!