Could we detect a nuclear explosion near a nearby star?

Question

If a civilisation living on a planet orbiting a nearby star a few light years away detonated a 50MT thermonuclear bomb in space near the planet with direct line of sight to the Hubble space telescope, say, would the explosion be detectable by Hubble in any way (visual, gamma ray burst, infra red, x-ray)?

Answer 1

no we wouldn't, we don't even know if aliens exist, and if they do, they certainly are intelligent lifeforms, as they don't interact with us. I think they take one look at Earth think "What a mess those humans have that planet in! There's no way I'm visiting there!" then fly off to some other alien tourist destination!

Answer 2

There is nothing that could detect something like a nuclear bomb at the edge of the galaxy. It's just to far away for that. But I'll tell you something interesting about gamma ray detection. Since the 1960's the U.S. has had a secret network of satellites designed to detect gamma rays. They where put up to detect nuclear test by the Soviet Union. They where built to detect it from all directions in case the soviets did nuclear tests in outer space. One thing they picked up was gamma ray bursts billions of light years away, so the U.S. military new about gamma ray bursts all the way back in the 60's and knew they where some of the most powerful events in the universe. Scientist then discovered Gamma ray bursts in the 90's, it was considered a magnificent scientific discovery and was covered by all the news services. A few years later the federal government revealed that they had known about gamma ray burst for decades. Some scientist really got their bubble burst on that one.

Answer 3

A 50 MT bomb would be small given the size of a planet and the distance to a neighboring star. Plus it would be over in a flash, literally. Doubtful we would notice it.

Answer 4

Sound as we know it, would/can not be heard in space.

Sound is caused by pressure waves in air (or something else, sound can go through water, for example). If there is no material (called a vacuum), there is no way for sound to travel, so you can't talk. Inside a space capsule or space station there is air, so the astronauts can talk there.

Answer 5

Every time you use gamma ray telescopes
you blow up planets
thermonuclearly.

That's those pretty little sparkles you can only see with gamma ray telecopes.

Ob1

Answer 6

Stars are basically big nuclear explosions anyway. Just slower. I dunno how big that bomb thing is but I don't reckon it would be noticeable!