14
Beams from brightest gamma ray burst ever seen were pointed directly at Earth
(go.theregister.com)
this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
14 points (100.0% liked)
Space
7294 readers
1 users here now
News and findings about our cosmos.
Subcommunity of Science
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
nothing scarier than seeing the words "gamma ray burst pointed directly at earth"
Yes, my thoughts exactly - that would never happen, right? Right?
one of our major extinction events may have been caused by a gamma-ray burst. Emphasis on may, we haven't arrived at certainty on that one.
Makes me wonder how large the "cone" of such a burst can get and how often GRBs happen in absolute terms if this tiny target gets hit twice in only a couple of million years. Anyone an expert on this?
Also, I'll never sleep again.
Literally had me checking my geiger counter when I saw that headline.