So much for Gamma-Ray Bursts reigning supreme as the universe's most intense source of light. The crown has now been placed upon the head of the Texas Petawatt Laser, housed at the University of Texas.
WTF is a Petawatt? 1 million billion watts.
On March 31, physicists fired up their creation, producing the above result, and they claim the device is just getting started, as they plan on increasing its output in the near future, hoping to attain 1.4 petawatts.
Interestingly, the laser pulse only needed 200 joules of power to sustain the burst, which is less than it takes to power a household light bulb. However, the pulse in question only lasted one-tenth of a trillionth of a second, which is a fraction of time I don't think my wrist-watch is capable of, thankfully.
The Swift satellite, which normally discovers two Gamma-Ray Bursts a week, detected 5 bursts yesterday and one of them is the new king.
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) occur when a star finally gives up the ghost and explodes. Yesterday's record holder was so intense that it poured out more light than all the stars in 5 million galaxies. Let that sink in. Okay, let's continue.
Here's some more mind-boggling info: The burst occurred 7.5-billion light-years away, yet...it was so powerful it could be seen with the naked eye...without binoculars.
Astronomers around the world are now observing the decaying glow from this burst as it fades away. These include UK teams from the Universities of Leicester, Warwick and Hertfordshire using the Gemini-North Telescope in Hawaii and the Liverpool John Moores University using the Liverpool Telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands.
It was just last week that I posted about one star in particular that may wipe out all life on Earth when it finally dies. Read all about that here.
According to a report in the March 1st issue of Astrophysical Journal, the Earth may be destroyed within the next 100,000 years by WR 104, a pinwheel structure headlined by a massive pair of binary stairs locked in tight orbit.
"I used to appreciate this spiral just for its beautiful form, but now I can't help a twinge of feeling that it is uncannily like looking down a rifle barrel,"said researcher Peter Tuthill, an astronomer at the University of Sydney.
