by The cosmos is the stage for a variety of giant explosions.
These include stellar flares, where stars suddenly release magnetic energy; and neutron star mergers, where two dense stars collide together.
But one class of explosions outshines the rest: gamma ray bursts are the most energetic explosions seen in the universe.
No gamma ray bursts have been documented in our galaxy yet, which may not be a bad thing.
A gamma ray burst pointed directly at the Earth would probably lead to a mass extinction event, and the end of civilisation as we know it.
Undocumented events may in fact already have caused mass extinction events in Earth's history.
Source
These include stellar flares, where stars suddenly release magnetic energy; and neutron star mergers, where two dense stars collide together.
But one class of explosions outshines the rest: gamma ray bursts are the most energetic explosions seen in the universe.
No gamma ray bursts have been documented in our galaxy yet, which may not be a bad thing.
A gamma ray burst pointed directly at the Earth would probably lead to a mass extinction event, and the end of civilisation as we know it.
Undocumented events may in fact already have caused mass extinction events in Earth's history.
Source
