NASA: Cosmic Blast Among Brightest Recorded
Robert Roy Britt, a journalist for Space.com, wrote this article,
NASA: Cosmic Blast Among Brightest Recorded on February 18, 2005. It
tells of the explosion caused by a magnetar, a special type of neutron star,
50,000 light-years that had been detected on the 20th of December of the
previous year. This event relates to Earth Science because it details the
effects of a neutron star in space, a fundamental part of astronomy.
A magnetar is a special type of neutron star that is extremely dense
and spins at a rate fast enough to generate a super-powerful magnetic field
that triggers occasional explosions. However, the blast that emanated from
SGR 1806-20 was 10 times more powerful than any other explosion to date.
If it had been within a few light-years of Earth, we could have suffered
major damage to the atmosphere. If that was the case…we wouldn’t be here
right now but gone a long time ago.
I liked this article somewhat because it taught me a little more about
supernovas and neutron stars. However, much of it seems unimportant
because the blasts of a magnetar most likely aren’t going to be a problem for
us. This is because most of these objects are too far away to be able to affect
our world.