Cosmic blast seared Earth's atmosphere from 2 billion light-years away

[sl8]

https://www.science.org/content/article/cosmic-blast-seared-earth-s-atmosphere-2-billion-light-years-away

Cosmic blast seared Earth’s atmosphere from 2 billion light-years away

Effects of brightest ever gamma ray burst show how a closer blast could harm life

14 NOV 2023 • 11:00 AM ET • BY DANIEL CLERY



In this artist’s impression, Europe’s Integral telescope (left) detects the brightest ever gamma ray burst while the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite senses its impact on the upper ionosphere.ESA/ATG EUROPE; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

On 9 October 2022, for 7 minutes, high energy photons from a gigantic explosion 1.9 billion light-years away toasted one side of Earth as never before observed. The event, called a gamma ray burst (GRB), was 70 times brighter than the previous record holder. But what astronomers dub the “BOAT”—the brightest of all time—did more than provide a light show spanning the electromagnetic spectrum. It also ionized atoms across the ionosphere, which spans from 50 to 1000 kilometers in altitude, researchers say. The findings highlight the faint but real risk of a closer burst destroying Earth’s protective ozone layer.
“It was such a massive event, it affected all levels of the atmosphere,” says solar physicist Laura Hayes of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Astronomers aren’t yet sure what causes a GRB, which we see shining as intensely as a bright star in the Milky Way, despite being billions of times more distant. To hurl so much energy across billions of light-years, GRBs must be among the biggest explosions since the big bang. At least some of them may be born in a particular type of supernova that occurs when a dying, massive star collapses into a neutron star or black hole. A typical GRB releases as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will in its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.

Even by those standards, the October 2022 event, known as GRB 221009A, was exceptional, saturating detectors on NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and leaving an afterglow at longer visible wavelengths that even amateur astronomers could see for hours.

[...]

[EYESORE 9001]

1. I'll add this to my Big List of Things Over Which I Have No Control

And Are Therefore Unworthy of Consternation.

Doomsday preppers may have a survival plan ready, but I never heard about dealing with loss of the ozone layer - perhaps even worse than that in the event of a closer blast.

[hatrack]

2. Yeah, this is Yellowstone Caldera Eruption-level stuff . . .

Hell, may as well just grab a beer and enjoy the light show.

[EYESORE 9001]

4. Right up there with a black hole wandering into thee neighborhood

Getting ‘spaghettified’ while being drawn somewhere beyond the event horizon would be unpleasant, but at least it wouldn’t last very long.

[markbark]

3. Always root for the asteroid

Always root for the asteroid or next big, close GRB.
At the rate we're going, mashing the reset button wouldn't be an entirely BAD thing, now would it?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Yes, it would be entirely a bad thing, Eeyore.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. Wow, the universe is certainly not

Designed for human life....or any life for that matter. Maybe it's designed for black holes.

We are lucky to have this planet to slowly destroy.

[Martin Eden]

8. We are a fluke of the universe

Random cosmic events led to our evolutionary development.

Greed and MAGA idiocy hastened our devolution into an unworthy species.

A random cosmic event can end our troubles and pleasures at any time.

Hsnd of God?

Doesn't really matter.

We'll never know.

[Chainfire]

7. Wait until you see that one that happened two billion and one years ago!

[BComplex]

9. Well that was scary as shit.

[Dave Bowman]

10. Wow, fascinating stuff.

Thanks for the post.