The brightest flash ever detected came from a magnetar, emitting primarily in the gamma-ray spectrum, and released more energy in a tenth of a second than the Sun produces in 100,000 years. The cause of the explosion is still unknown, but it could have been a “starquake,” magnetic reconnection, or collapse of the neutron star. The explosion could have caused a mass extinction if it occurred within 10 light-years of Earth.
The brightest flash ever detected was observed on December 27, 2004. Its source was a magnetar, a form of neutron star with a powerful magnetic field and a mass greater than the sun condensed into an area the size of a small city. Emitting primarily in the gamma-ray portion of the spectrum, this explosion released more energy in a tenth of a second than the Sun produces in 100,000 years.
The magnetar is 50,000 light-years away, about half the distance across the galaxy. If the explosion—not just the brightest flash of the century, but perhaps the last thousand years of galactic history—had occurred within 10 light-years of Earth, it could have ripped apart the atmosphere and caused a mass extinction.
The precise cause of the explosion is still unknown. Imagine a sphere 20 km (12 mi) in diameter, so massive that each teaspoon of its material weighs two million tons, rotating once every 7.5 seconds, with a magnetic field strong enough to erase a credit card at once. distance of the orbit of Venus. These types of objects push the extremes of physics so closely that we have only limited knowledge about them.
A “starquake” – an internal rearrangement of matter – could have produced the explosion, or a magnetic reconnection, a scenario in which a magnetic field abruptly realigns itself, releasing the brightest flash the galaxy has seen in years. The brightest flash could also come from the collapse of the neutron star into a hypothetical even smaller and denser body, the so-called quark star.
While this explosion was the brightest flash ever observed, you wouldn’t be able to see it with the naked eye, as it originates mostly in the gamma-ray spectrum. This is to be expected, because gamma rays are the distinct type of radiation created by particles on the scale of the atomic nucleus, like the neutrons that make up a neutron star. Visible light is emitted on the scale of molecules, given off prominently in familiar chemical reactions. It’s ironic that the brightest flash in the universe doesn’t seem all that bright to us, unless it was close enough to energize our atmosphere.
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