The Most Powerful Events in the Universe

Visuals from pixaby.com, pexels.com, vecteezy.com The article from Medium titled "This Is the Most Powerful Event Possible in the Universe" discusses the most energetic events known in the universe, with a focus on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), supernovas, quasars, kilonovae, and black hole mergers.

Gamma-ray bursts are highlighted as some of the brightest and most powerful explosions, with one particular burst observed by NASA releasing $$5 \times 10^{54}$$ joules (J) of energy. These bursts originate from violent cosmic events involving black holes, neutron stars, and hypernovas.

Supernovas, the explosive deaths of massive stars, and quasars, which involve black holes consuming material at the centers of active galaxies, are also mentioned. While active galaxies can emit energy comparable to gamma-ray bursts, they do so over millions of years, unlike the abrupt seconds and minutes of gamma-ray bursts.

Black hole mergers are described as extremely luminous, albeit brief, events. The first detected black hole merger, GW150914, emitted $$10^{47}$$ J in just 200 milliseconds. The most powerful black hole collision known involved black holes of 85 and 66 solar masses, resulting in a final black hole of 150 solar masses, with some mass converted to energy detectable as gravitational waves.

The article from Universe Today corroborates the power of gamma-ray bursts, mentioning the most powerful GRB ever recorded, which occurred in the constellation Sagitta and was 2.4 billion light-years away. This event was likely caused by a massive star going supernova and forming a black hole.

Nature's daily briefing also refers to a highly energetic cosmic event, a fireball 100 times the size of the Solar System and 2 trillion times brighter than the Sun, which might have been caused by a star or gas cloud being consumed by a black hole. However, it clarifies that the brightest event ever seen was the gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A.

NASA's page on gamma-ray bursts provides additional context, explaining that GRBs are the most powerful events in the known universe and are now thought to signal the births of new black holes. They were first discovered by the Vela satellites in 1963.

Wikipedia's entry on gamma-ray bursts confirms that they are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang, lasting from milliseconds to several hours.

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