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The Universe: Top 10 Supernova Explosions *BIGGEST BLASTS* (S4, E4) | Full Episode

HISTORY・26 minutes read

The universe's mysterious and deadly secrets are continuously unraveled through discoveries, showcasing immense cosmic explosions capable of wiping out cities, continents, planets, and even galaxies. From neutron stars to supernovas to black holes, these explosions release massive amounts of energy, shaping the universe and revealing its violent yet fascinating nature.

Insights

  • The universe originated from darkness and a big bang, giving rise to time, space, and matter, with continuous discoveries unraveling the universe's dangerous mysteries, such as asteroid impacts, black holes, and massive stars.
  • Explosions in the cosmos, like those from the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet on Jupiter or the Chicxulub asteroid impact on Earth, have the potential to devastate entire regions, planets, and galaxies, showcasing the immense power and destructive force of these events, contrasting the common occurrence of explosions in the universe with Earth's relative calmness.

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Recent questions

  • What are some common events in the universe?

    Explosions, asteroid impacts, black holes, and massive stars.

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Summary

00:00

"Unveiling Explosions: Power and Destruction in Cosmos"

  • The universe began with darkness, followed by a big bang, leading to the creation of time, space, and matter.
  • New discoveries continuously unveil the mysterious and deadly secrets of the universe, including asteroid impacts, planet collisions, black holes, and massive stars.
  • A countdown of the 10 largest explosions in the cosmos is about to be explored, showcasing the immense power of these events.
  • These explosions have the potential to wipe out cities, continents, planets, and even rip galaxies apart due to their destructive force.
  • Explosions and blasts in the universe are common, contrasting with the calm life on Earth, which is an exception rather than the norm.
  • Explosions and blasts are essentially a release of energy, leading to destruction but also the reconstruction of energy into other forms.
  • The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet fragments hitting Jupiter in 1994 created massive black scars and released energy equal to six million megatons of TNT.
  • The Chicxulub impact, an asteroid hitting Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, wiped out the dinosaurs, creating a 112-mile diameter crater and releasing about 250 million megatons of energy.
  • An asteroid impact on Mars, 200 times larger than the one on Earth, created the Borealis Basin, covering 40% of the planet and releasing about 250 million million megatons of energy.
  • The Big Splat theory suggests that an object the size of Mars collided with Earth, leading to the formation of the moon and stabilizing Earth's axis and rotation.

17:49

"Powerful Cosmic Phenomena: Neutron Stars and Black Holes"

  • Neutron star material is incredibly dense, with a cap filled with it weighing 100 billion tons on Earth, equivalent to an entire mountain.
  • Certain neutron stars, called magnetars, have the strongest magnetic fields in the universe, 1,000 trillion times stronger than Earth's.
  • Magnetar flares are powerful due to intense magnetic fields twisting and releasing energy like a spring.
  • Magnetar flares emit most of their energy as electromagnetic radiation, blinding satellites from 50,000 light years away.
  • The blast from a magnetar known as SGR 1806 minus 20 released as much energy in 1/10 of a second as the sun does in 100,000 years.
  • Gamma rays in magnetar flares indicate significant energy release, with gamma rays being more energetic than visible light.
  • Supermassive black hole MSA 735 has been emitting jets of particles for 100 million years, creating huge bubbles in surrounding galaxies.
  • Black hole jets are powerful enough to create massive bubbles, with energy released over 100 million years.
  • Short gamma ray bursts, like GRB 050509B, result from neutron stars colliding and forming black holes, releasing energy equivalent to the sun's output over millions of years.
  • Supernovas, like type Ia and core collapse, release immense energy, with one type Ia supernova in 2003 being over 20 billion times more luminous than the sun for two weeks.

35:01

"Supernovas: Recycling stars, creating heavy elements"

  • Supernovas act as recycling centers for massive stars, processing materials ranging from 8 to over 100 times the mass of our sun.
  • Stars about to go supernova are crucial for creating heavy elements like metals necessary for life, starting with hydrogen and progressing to iron.
  • Long gamma ray bursts, the most powerful supernova explosions, release significantly more energy than short bursts, up to 10,000 times more powerful.
  • These bursts are evidence of the birth of black holes and are concentrated jets of energy that come from stars 30 times the mass of our sun.
  • The most powerful long gamma ray bursts release more energy in seconds or minutes than our sun does in its entire 10 billion year lifespan.
  • The Big Bang, the largest blast in the universe, was not an explosion within a defined area but the entire universe coming into existence, with temperatures trillions of degrees beyond any other explosion.
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