November 22, 2013

Brightest Cosmic Explosion Ever Witnessed Puzzles Scientists

Astronomers in April, 2013 saw the biggest and brightest cosmic explosion ever witnessed, a large gamma-ray burst.

This image is an artist’s rendering of a gamma-ray burst caused by a massive star exhausting its nuclear fuel, exploding and collapsing to form a black hole.

This event is known as GRB 130427A, the biggest and brightest cosmic explosion ever witnessed, which astronomers saw in April, 2013. The exploding star from 3.8 billion light-years away has caused scientists to question what we know about gamma-ray bursts.

“Some of our theories are just going down the drain,” said Charles Dermer, an astrophysicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Read more here.

Image courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Surprising Science

How Rodin Turned Early Neurology into Modern Sculpture

When we look at the sculpture of Auguste Rodin, we can’t help but feel what his figures feel. Every inch of those sculpted bodies “speaks” the language of passion, whether […]