(December 30, 2019 at 9:11 am)Succubus Wrote:(December 29, 2019 at 11:14 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: I will be sure to run around, waving my arms, screaming “repent! the end is nigh!” when the neutrinos arrive so I can say “I told you so” when light appears in the sky.
Dangerous things neutrinos.
Which of the following would be brighter, in terms of the amount of energy delivered to your retina:
- 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?
The supernova is brighter, by nine orders of magnitude.
The very excellent Randall Munroe.
The difference between the two distances, on a cosmic scale, are essentially zero so that's not really hard to sort out.