20 years ago today, a tiny neutron star reached halfway across the galaxy and slammed our planet with a gamma-ray hammer.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-earth-rocking-cosmic-explosion-turns-20/
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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-earth-rocking-cosmic-explosion-turns-20/
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Comments
A bit of nuclear pasta with some marinara...
https://youtu.be/i-jdhorGtQI?si=ryvx3_riIMPPFScM
Studying business administration. 🙌
...have we found the second coming yet?
Who here just turned 20?
😉
💋
"Do you see what I see?
Way up in the sky, little lamb
Do you see what I see?
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite"
much for granted. In the scheme of things, it could all end at any time in the blink of an eye and as fascinating as the Universe is, it’s also terrifying.
#tldr
… a magnetar is a kind of xtrem density neutron star…its mass ~ that of the sun but ~20km across…its intensely powerful mag field is embedded in its crust… A [crustal] slip of just 1mm can… shake the mag field so violently the mag field lines snap & recombine, releasing stored-up energy
P.S. do you mind if I use the cover of your "Death from the Skies" book in an internal presentation on the BOAT?
I’m not gonna lie, Phil; I’m still disappointed.
As an attention-getting-step for some really complicated math to discuss Lagrange Points, it was good.
to the atmosphere! and the geomagnetic field; thank you for shielding us.