affects of superNova hitting earth

[jumlum]

It seems strange that the most powreful force in the universe could hit earth and leave no signs. Is there anyone who study gamma ray burst that can explain it's wave form?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Gamma rays are just higher energy light or radio waves. Like sunlight, it is brighter if you are closer to the sun like Mercury, and dimmer if you are further away like Pluto or Eris is.

Much the same, because stars that create a supernova are so far away (billions and billions of times further away thatn the sun) the "light" is very dim by the time it reaches earth, so unless in it very strongly aimed in our direction, and relatively close (for a star) it causes no damage.

A very close star with a favorable alignment could cause damage to the earth's atmosphere, but there are no known stars at this time that pose that threat.

 

[crazyeddie]

Gamma rays are just higher energy light or radio waves. Like sunlight, it is brighter if you are closer to the sun like Mercury, and dimmer if you are further away like Pluto or Eris is.

Much the same, because stars that create a supernova are so far away (billions and billions of times further away thatn the sun) the "light" is very dim by the time it reaches earth, so unless in it very strongly aimed in our direction, and relatively close (for a star) it causes no damage.

A very close star with a favorable alignment could cause damage to the earth's atmosphere, but there are no known stars at this time that pose that threat.

I've read that the storm of cosmic rays that would follow a gamma ray burst, if it happened within a few thousand light years of the Earth, could cause us a great deal of harm, even if the GRB wasn't pointed directly at us.

 

[kg]

It seems strange that the most powreful force in the universe could hit earth and leave no signs. Is there anyone who study gamma ray burst that can explain it's wave form?

A gamma-ray burst close to home would leave some signs. Are you maybe thinking of the neutrinos emitted by a super nova? A super nova can outshine it's host galaxy in the visible spectrum however most of it's energy is emitted as neutrinos. The neutrinos would pass through the earth without leaving any signs exept maybe the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector (along with others) would light up like a pinball machine!

 

[jasont311]

Does anyone know what the biggest Supernova was?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Well, the easy answer is, no. In fact it's quite likely that the biggest ones have occurred sometime other than when we can see them. The ones we've observed visually and that were recorded only go back about 2000 years, so we have only seen those that occurred during 2000 years, plus the light time distance for the event. (In other words, if it occurred 2.1 million light years away, we only would have seen the ones that occurred between 2,100,000 and 2,102,000 years ago). We can see even fainter ones with telescopes, but that period has only lasted 400 years for the most primitive optical telescopes, and about 50 years or so for those that can only be observed in other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.