4 ms·
Even though the beam of the gamma ray burst is incredibly focused, it still dissipates as it travels, like a searchlight beam (or even a laser). Nearly all GRBs
by gilbetron 4y ago
Even though the beam of the gamma ray burst is incredibly focused, it still dissipates as it travels, like a searchlight beam (or even a laser). Nearly all GRBs that we detect are from really far away and so are not a threat. If one happens "nearby" and it was pointed at the earth, we'd be cooked! But they are extremely rare events.
- gus_massa 4y ago> we'd be cooked! Would it cook all the Earth or only the unlucky half that is in that direction?
- ianmcgowan 4y agoI'm not sure the half sheltered from the direct burst would be considered lucky. There's a cool short story about the sun going nova, and one half of the planet is immediately destroyed. For me it always seemed like going quickly would be the better option..
- Merad 4y agoThe lucky half would be the ones who got cooked due to facing the burst. The unlucky survivors would get to take a journey with a planet on its way to being inhospitable due to just having half of its atmosphere burned away and half of the surface completely sanitized of life.
- dredmorbius 4y agoThe Late Ordovician mass extinction may have resulted from a GRB 443 mya. Its effects are observed in the fossil record of marine life (effectively: the only life on Earth at the time), and were far more pronounced at shallow depths than deeper ones, corresponding to dose-effect theories. Note that this is a hypothesis and would likely be impossible to verify. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Ordovician_mass_extinction#Gamma-ray_burst https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Ordovician_mass_extinctio...>