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energy of a supernova

energy of a supernova published on No Comments on energy of a supernova

hope i did the maths right here (thank god for wolfram alpha). i love ridiculous scale comparisons for supernovae, but there’s no beating the classic one by randall munroe (the xkcd guy):

“which of the following would be brighter:
a supernova, seen from as far away as the sun is from the earth, or
the detonation of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball?”

now i’m just waiting for some smartarse in the comments to point out that if you actually did magic a ball of tnt that large into existence it would just collapse under the weight of its own gravity and explode as a supernova anyway. shut up, it’s a thought exercise. don’t be that guy.