The most important terrifying thing about a black hole is its powerful gravity. We all know that the square of gravity and distance is inverse proportional. As the distance increases, the gravity of a black hole will also decrease significantly. This means that as long as the distance is always maintained at a certain level with the black hole, the black hole will not be so terrible. So what is the "a certain degree of distance"? Let's take a look at a specific example.
In November 2022, scientists discovered a new black hole - "Gaia BH1". This black hole is located in Ophiuchus , about 1560 light years from the earth, and its mass is about 10 times that of the sun. Scientists discovered that just near this black hole, there is a yellow dwarf similar to the sun running, and the average distance between the two is only 1 astronomical unit .
1 Astronomical unit is actually the average distance between the earth and the sun. This distance can be said to be "close" in the universe. However, even at this distance, stars are not swallowed by black holes. It can be seen that black holes are not as terrible as imagined.
For us humans, the celestial bodies in the universe that are more terrifying than black holes should be those celestial bodies that may cause huge damage to the earth even if they are separated by a long distance. The most threatening of these are undoubtedly those massive stars that have evolved to the end of their life cycle, .
Generally speaking, stars larger than 48 times the mass of the sun in can be called "massive stars". According to known star evolution models, after their "fuel" is exhausted, such stars will experience an unparalleled " supernova explosion " due to sudden pressure loss inside. This is also the most powerful explosion in the known universe. According to scientists' observations, when a massive star undergoes a " supernova explosion ", its brightness is enough to make the entire galaxy where it is located beneath it.
Because the energy released by the "supernova explosion" is too huge, scientists also specially created a special unit - "foe" to be described more conveniently. By definition, the energy of 1foe is 10^44 Joule.
Among all known "supernova explosions" events, the weakest one is about 0.1foe, while the strongest one is more than 5foe. Here we might as well feel the weakest "supernova explosions".
0.1foe is 10^43 joules. What is this? Let’s put it this way, according to scientists’ estimates, the asteroid that “eluted” dinosaurs from the earth 65 million years ago released about 5 x 10^23 joules when it hit the earth. A brief calculation shows that even the weakest “supernova explosion” released is 200 billion times that of this asteroid.
It is worth mentioning that some researchers have described the power of "supernova explosion" more vividly, that is, if a person observes "supernova explosion" outside of an astronomical unit, then the energy received by his eyes is approximately equivalent to 1 billion " Tsar bomb " that explode in front of him at the same time (Note: "tsar bomb" is the most powerful hydrogen bomb created by humans).
Yes, the power of "supernova explosion" is so unimaginable. It is no exaggeration to say that if a "supernova explosion" occurs at the position of the sun, let alone the earth, even the entire solar system will be wiped out.
In fact, the impact of "supernova explosion" is very large. According to scientists' estimates, if the "supernova explosion" occurs within 50 light years, the ecological environment on the earth will be severely damaged, and if the distance is reduced to 30 light years, the ecological environment on the earth will be completely destroyed.
In addition, when a massive star experiences a "supernova explosion", an extremely powerful " gamma-ray burst " will be released along the direction of its rotation axis, and its impact distance can be as high as thousands of light years.By the way, some scientists speculate that the "culprit" of the first mass extinction event on Earth ( Ordovician-Silurian extinction event ) may be a "gamma ray burst" from 6,000 light years away.
To sum up, we can see that from the perspective of human survival, those massive stars in the universe that have evolved to near the end of their life cycle are undoubtedly more terrifying celestial bodies than black holes. So are there such celestial bodies in the universe around the earth? Yes, it is " Betelgeuse " that is about 640 light years away from us. The mass of
"Betelgeuse" is about 16.5 to 19 times. Observation data show that this massive star has evolved into a " red supergiant star ", and this is the last stage of its life cycle. Scientists speculate that within the next 1 million years, this body will have a "supernova explosion."
However, we don’t need to worry about this, because at a distance of 640 light years, only a "gamma ray burst" may affect the earth. Scientists have long confirmed that the rotation axis of the Betelgeuse has an angle of about 30 degrees from the direction of the earth, which means that it does not "target" the earth.
, that’s all for today. Welcome to follow us at . See you next time.
(Some of the pictures in this article are from the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact the author to delete it)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-