What is this? It’s an image of one of the largest and most spectacular explosions in the universe. And when we say large, we mean HUGE!
Thank goodness it happened so far away, because you don’t want a gamma ray burst like this right next door. You’ve heard of a supernova, and you know how massive and deadly those are, right? Well, it’s possible that this explosion was about the size of 9,000 supernovae. 9,000!
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute believe that this particular fireball detonated more than 12 billion light years away, and was the result of a massive star running out of its nuclear fuel. Once that happens, things turn ugly for the star, and in this case, it was violent beyond belief.
I think you’d enjoy reading more about it. Here’s a link to one story on the explosion, one of many you could find online. And, to find out more about gamma rays, just click here.