Also, how far away from it would we have to be to experience the same light and heat levels we get from the sun?
2006-11-16 00:12:47 · 13 answers · asked by darestobelieve 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
From the website taken among the other answers, I took this quasar with its 4 to 5 million - billions times brighter than the sun. If this light is the same as here around the sun, I consider that the total energy on a given sphere is a constant. But the energy density is directly related to the surface of the corresponding sphere. It growth to the second power of its radius. In other words, when the energy is 4 times the one of the sune, the earth has to be at 2 AU (300 000 000 km) from the sun to get the same light level. Having a 4 to 5 * 10^15 (million - billion) more light means 70 000 000 AU to get the same light level. Since 1 AU is 150 000 000 km, this means a 10^16 km away from the light source. This represents a 1000 light years of travel. The closest star, besides the sun, is a 4.5 light years.
That's bright !
Another source gives hypernovae as brightest. A value of 3 * 10^46 J is given as the same energy level as the universe (for two seconds). To have an analogous, it's necessary to go for the big bang theory. If we receive one joule per square meter and per day on earth from the sun, then the corresponding sphere for this flash is 5 millions light years big. That's brighter but damn short. Two seconds !
I have a third candidate. It was much shorter and much brighter. The big band itself.
2006-11-16 01:47:04 · answer #1 · answered by S2ndreal 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It depends on what you mean by "astronomical body". A cluster of galaxies is very luminous, but also very, very big.
Probably the best candidate to answer your question is a quasar. There aren't any quasars any more, but back in the early days of the Universe, quasars had 10^13 solar luminosities in a region smaller than the solar system. To get the same light as the Sun, you would have to be sqrt(10^13) times further away.
That is sqrt(10^13) = 3 x 10^6 AU = 15 parsecs or about 10 times further away than Alpha Centuri.
One issue for quasars as light sources is that they are highly variable. If you depended on a quasar to keep your planet warm, you'd have to tolerate a lot of variability.
2006-11-16 09:09:47 · answer #2 · answered by cosmo 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well the brightest astronomical body in universe noted till now is a QUASAR in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. It estimated to be around 11 billion light years from Earth. The brightness level is around 4 million-billion to 5 million-billion times than that of our SUN.
Don't have the answer to your second question
2006-11-16 08:34:01 · answer #3 · answered by AstroWiz 1 · 3⤊ 1⤋
The quasar (or quasi-stellar object) is 4 million-billion to 5 million-billion times brighter than the Sun. It is estimated to be more than 10 times brighter than any other quasar, and outshines the brightest galaxy by more than 100 times.
also..Astronomers have solved part of the mystery of gamma ray bursts by determining that one occurred billions of light-years outside the Milky Way and burned brighter than any object in the universe.
The California Institute of Technology group is the first to pinpoint distance and brightness for one of astronomy's most enigmatic phenomena.
``This is certainly the discovery of the year in astronomy,'' said Bohdan Paczynski, a Princeton University astrophysics professor who termed the extragalactic finding ``spectacular.''
The gamma ray burst observed on May 8 blazed ``a billion-billion times brighter'' than the sun, said Caltech astronomy professor Shri Kulkarni. For 10 seconds, it was ``the reigning king or queen of the sky.''
The burst occurred about halfway across the universe, researcher Chuck Steidel said. Assuming the universe is about 15 billion light-years across, the burst was ``greater than 7 billion light-years away,'' he said.
2006-11-16 08:33:58 · answer #4 · answered by donttalkjustplay05 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Stars (or may be blackholes) undergoing a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). Such GRBs are supposed to outshine the entire universe, though very briefly. It is estimated that if a GRB occurs even at a distance of several hundred light years, it could devastate earth.
2006-11-16 09:02:45 · answer #5 · answered by ramshi 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The brighest astronomical body in the Universe as seen from Earth is the Sun.
2006-11-16 13:48:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
It depends where you live as to what you can see. The brightest star I can see is Sirius. I have no idea about your 2nd question though :S
2006-11-16 08:17:33 · answer #7 · answered by shirazzza 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
QuasiStellarObjects!
2006-11-16 08:27:59 · answer #8 · answered by Coke&TVdinner 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is super nova but they don't last very long.
For us, it is the sun
2006-11-16 08:16:30 · answer #9 · answered by maussy 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Core of any galaxy.
2006-11-16 11:49:41 · answer #10 · answered by Ramsees II- the Great One 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋