Star torn apart by black hole?

[Dionysus]

A gamma ray burst nicknamed GRB 110328A (i.e. detected 3/28/2011) appears to be the legacy of a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole, leaving a peak brightness one trillion times the sun's brightness as it met its ancient inevitable end.

The event happened 3.8 billion light years away. In other words, it happened about 3.8 billion years ago and the light from the event reached earth just in the last week or so.

Try to imagine a distance like that. Light, traveling at about 186,000 miles per second, keeps traveling at this rate for nearly four billion years. It would go kinda far in that time, no?

The universe rocks.

 

[DoobieWah]

In reply to:

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[Dionysus]

Yes, Doobie — that's what I meant. Thanks, I've corrected it.

 

[71grad]

(1 light year) 5.87 trillion milles x 3.8 billion = a long ways

 

[slughead42]

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space." - the late, the great, Douglas Adams