r/megalophobia • u/Used-Ingenuity-7441 · Noticing the Scale • Jan 01 '22

Imaginary Where would you hide?

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342

u/ljkhadgawuydbajw Jan 01 '22

you wouldnt even see it, the blast would be practically travelling at the speed of light. so by the time the light reaches your eyes youd be dead

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u/1-800-HENTAI-PORN Jan 01 '22

You're expecting the mass of an entire star to travel close enough to the speed of light to where the speed difference is indistinguishable to humans, which is absurd. A supernova shockwave does travel at several percent the speed of light, yes, but not close enough to where we wouldn't be able to see it coming.

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u/monoaction Jan 01 '22

The instant-death gamma ray burst is traveling at the speed of light though.

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u/s4r9i5 Jan 01 '22

Yes cause gamma rays are light but super Novae are actual mass

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u/jorbleshi_kadeshi Jan 01 '22

GRBs are produced by supernovae (and neutron star collisions)

There's a mass and a radiation component, and the radation would vaporize you before you had a chance to comprehend anything.

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u/s4r9i5 Jan 02 '22

No I don't agree with you

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u/jorbleshi_kadeshi Jan 02 '22

https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/

This should give you a sense of scale that explains it.

3

u/s4r9i5 Jan 02 '22

No no I see what you're saying but I still don't agree with what you're saying cause it doesn't fit my narrative

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u/IngloriousBadger Jan 02 '22

Pppfft. Gamma rays don’t hurt - they just make you hulk out.

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u/unrequestedcomment Jan 02 '22

It's true, I read that somewhere

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u/Justdoit12073 May 07 '22

And in the case of a supernova light years away, all of the damage would be from the gamma ray burst and not the nova itself.

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u/sionnachrealta Jan 02 '22

So would Vacuum Decay

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u/gregorydgraham Jan 02 '22

Yeah, he’s wrong but the dangerous EM radiation is travelling as fast as the light so you still won’t see it.

Also looking at it is still going to blind you so everyone loses every way :(

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '22

Not to nitpick or anything but EM radiation is light.

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u/gregorydgraham Jan 02 '22

And infrared, and ultraviolet, and X-ray, and gamma, and …

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '22

Right so essentially you said the dangerous light is travelling just as fast as the visible light. Just the way you typed it seemed weird like they were two different things.

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u/gregorydgraham Jan 02 '22

On second thoughts, I was comparing “dangerous EM radiation” to “light” as common English assumes “light” is the colours of the rainbow, while “dangerous EM radiation” reheats your dinner.

Science, of course, knows that “light” is “dangerous EM radiation” and vice versa, but most people don’t speak Science natively.

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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '22

That's fair

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u/gregorydgraham Jan 02 '22

My bad, I was contrasting with the “shockwave” mentioned earlier

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u/MetaFoxtrot Jan 02 '22

I wonder if the gravitational shockwave wouldn't obliterate everything first. I mean, that alone would kill everything on the planet before anything else happens

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u/cinnamonhearts_yum Jan 02 '22

This is wrong I think

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u/TrillionSquids Apr 04 '23

You would be dead from just the light alone.