The biggest stellar blast ever detected (other than the Big Bang) has been detected.
50,000 years ago, a magnetar 50,000 light years away blew its top in the gamma-ray (not visible light) spectrum and outshone the rest of the galaxy. The flash reached earth December 27 and briefly altered Earth’s atmosphere.
The commotion was caused by a special variety of neutron star known as a magnetar. These fast-spinning, compact stellar corpses — no larger than a big city — create intense magnetic fields that trigger explosions. The blast was 100 times more powerful than any other similar eruption witnessed, said David Palmer of Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of several researchers around the world who monitored the event with various telescopes.
"Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere and possibly have triggered a mass extinction," said Bryan Gaensler of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).
There are no magnetars close enough to worry about, however, Gaensler and two other astronomers told SPACE.com. But the strength of the tempest has them marveling over the dying star’s capabilities while also wondering if major species die-offs in the past might have been triggered by stellar explosions.
Never let your PC get close to a magnetar. It will wipe out your hard drive in a second.
Was this the day that we had the big northern lights show?
I think the day with the huge northern lights was earlier in the winter on November 8th. Here is a website with pictures from that night:
http://www.extremeinstability.com/04-11-8.htm
I didn’t see any spectacular heavenly sights occuring on December 27th.
Andy
Also, the northern lights are caused by the solar wind, which is mostly high-energy protons, not gamma rays.
Codeine.
Codeine. Hard to annunciate fioricet codeine.