Paul’s Puzzles this week are:
Either
Scientists have detected evidence of a colossal explosion in space – five times bigger than anything observed before.
The huge release of energy is thought to have emanated from a supermassive black hole some 390 million light years from Earth. The eruption is said to have left a giant dent in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. Researchers reported their findings in The Astrophysical Journal.
“I’ve tried to put this explosion into human terms and it’s really, really difficult,” co-author Melanie Johnston-Hollitt told BBC News.
“The best I can do is tell you that if this explosion continued to occur over the 240 million years of the outburst – which it probably didn’t, but anyway – it’d be like setting off 20 billion, billion megaton TNT explosions every thousandth of a second for the entire 240 million years. So that’s incomprehensibly big. Huge.”
I have read the above ten times today and admit I just do not know what it means. Is it likely that animals on this little planet, in February 2020, will understand the ultimate origins of the universe?
Or
If the story above is true, do you think a number of other intelligent creatures in the universe have witnessed the same phenomenon? Can science predict approximately how many?
Or
Is it morally acceptable to enjoy the Tyson Fury boxing victory in a week when primary schools have been instructed to ban heading the ball in football because of the brain damage it causes?
Or
Are there planets in the Universes where the animals living on them do not face viruses? Or would they die out because of overpopulation?
Categories: Paul's Puzzles
