Death From Space — Gamma-Ray Bursts Explained
Use the URL: http://www.squarespace.com/nutshell for 10% with a new website and support this channel. Also make your life easier. Thanks a lot to Squarespace for supporting the show! There...
==========
Imagine if you could gather the energy from every star within a hundred million light years.From thousands of galaxies, each with billions of stars.Imagine, you could take this kind of power, and use it to fire the biggest super-weapon in the universe.Imagine the damage you could do.It turns out, you don't need to imagine it.These exist, and they're called gamma ray bursts.But what are these cosmic snipers?And what happens if one takes a shot at Earth?To understand gamma ray bursts, we first have to understand gamma rays.Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation – waves which carry energy just like visible light.Visible light is a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum: it's the part your eyes can see.At lower energies, there are radio waves, ...
==========
Imagine if you could gather the energy from every star within a hundred million light years.From thousands of galaxies, each with billions of stars.Imagine, you could take this kind of power, and use it to fire the biggest super-weapon in the universe.Imagine the damage you could do.It turns out, you don't need to imagine it.These exist, and they're called gamma ray bursts.But what are these cosmic snipers?And what happens if one takes a shot at Earth?To understand gamma ray bursts, we first have to understand gamma rays.Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation – waves which carry energy just like visible light.Visible light is a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum: it's the part your eyes can see.At lower energies, there are radio waves, ...
