I suspect that the OP means “solar system” not “galaxy”.
[QUOTE=bonitahi]
What would it be called if a galaxy exploded
(like star from a nova or super nova)?
[/QUOTE]
<Stephen Hawking>
I call it a Hawking Blast.
</Stephen Hawking>
I feel your pain. I’m looking for a few good cites (more authoritative than a message board, at least); if I find any, I’ll let you know.
[QUOTE=Sage Rat]
I suspect that the OP means “solar system” not “galaxy”.
[/QUOTE]
OP meant galaxy.
[QUOTE=commasense]
If no one else is willing to give the OP a straightforward answer, I will, in the best tradition of naming astronomical concepts like the Big Bang.
It would be called a Super-Duper Nova[sup]TM[/sup].
So there.
[/QUOTE]
commasense, thanks for a straightforward answer. Makes sense to me.
[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
<Stephen Hawking>
I call it a Hawking Blast.
</Stephen Hawking>
[/QUOTE]
Therefore it shall be known as Super-Duper NovaTM Hawking Blast.
The next time.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
If our Sun where compressed into a black hole, we’d all die from lack of energy, but the Earth would continue in the exact same orbit as before.
[/QUOTE]
In a related note, if gravitons mediate the force of gravity, but nothing can escape a black hole, how do the gravitons pass the event horizon? Tunneling? Seems like an awful lot of tunneling…
[QUOTE=Punoqllads]
In a related note, if gravitons mediate the force of gravity, but nothing can escape a black hole, how do the gravitons pass the event horizon? Tunneling? Seems like an awful lot of tunneling…
[/QUOTE]
Stuff does escape from black holes. Hawking radiation. It’s still theoretical, but so are gravitons.
Perhaps the OP means each star in a galaxy exploding simultaneously … you know, like everyone in China jumping off a chair?
(On review, that would be one huge chair.)
[QUOTE=bonitahi]
commasense, thanks for a straightforward answer.
[/QUOTE]
Amusing as it was, it was actually the least straightforward answer here.
[QUOTE=bonitahi]
Therefore it shall be known as Super-Duper NovaTM Hawking Blast.
[/QUOTE]
Nah, I’m sure I saw a guy do one of those in a kung fu movie one time. You twist your right arm like this, and kick your enemys’ head off with both feet like this.
I have however just found out that it doesn’t work so well on cats.
Anyone got a band-aid? Maybe some gauze?
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
Amusing as it was, it was actually the least straightforward answer here.
[/QUOTE]
It was amusing.
If it were to happen - not that I’m arguing the more learned response here - I think I’d just call it a disaster.
Not only does it work for itself, but the etymology of “bad star” just fits too well, I think.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
Amusing as it was, it was actually the least straightforward answer here.
[/QUOTE]
Not so fast, Mr. Smarty Pants! The OP’s original question was not “Could a galaxy explode?” but “What would it be called if a galaxy exploded?” [Emphasis mine.]
Pochacco comes along with the digression that such a thing is not possible, but bonitahi is undeterred and restates the essence of his/her question: “And the name they call that is…?” [Emphasis mine.]
dwc makes a pretty good joke, but then the whole thread goes off on a tangent about physics and astronomy and whatnot. You provide some factually correct but irrelevant rubbish about black holes, and succeed, with a few accomplices, in completely distracting bonitahi from the intent of the OP, which was clearly inspired more by philology than physics.
After a few more jokes, I finally took pity and provided the most straightforward and relevant answer to the OP: what it would be called. And unlike the rest of you, I didn’t rely on facts or science or anything like that, since the OP clearly wasn’t asking for facts. I tapped into the vast unseen forces that control the universe, opened my consciousness, and intuited that if a galaxy exploded, it would be called a Super-Duper Nova. And I dare anyone to disprove that. You couldn’t do it with both hands.
For the benefit of the terminally humor-challenged, this post is firmly tongue-in-cheek. I’m not mad at or insulting anyone, certainly not Q.E.D. who I suspect really is Stephen Hawking, Cecil Adams, or God. Or possibly all three.
You just can’t argue with logic like that.
bonitahi, a galaxy is mostly empty space. The majority of what is not empty space is hydrogen atoms. Every so often you see a star. There are photons constantly flitting around, but they don’t “exist” in most of the ways you’re thinking of. How can hard vacuum possibly explode?
[QUOTE=bonitahi]
What would it be called if a galaxy exploded
(like star from a nova or super nova)?
[/QUOTE]
Nothing, if something like that happened (and from the replies it seems unlikely, but still) nobody would be around to *name * it anything. So like most unexpected and highly undesirable situations it would mostly be called an “Oh Shi…”
[QUOTE=Punoqllads]
In a related note, if gravitons mediate the force of gravity, but nothing can escape a black hole, how do the gravitons pass the event horizon? Tunneling? Seems like an awful lot of tunneling…
[/QUOTE]
The force of gravity, should we ever come up with a theory of quantum gravity, would be mediated by virtual gravitons, and they aren’t constrained by the speed of light.
As far as a name for a galaxy explosion, how about a Monster Space Kablooey?
At least that’s what I think Professor Calvin called it, although Doctor Hobbes, as I remember it, disagreed.
[QUOTE=Q.E.D.]
You just can’t argue with logic like that.
[/QUOTE]
I accept your apology!
[QUOTE=Ring]
The force of gravity, should we ever come up with a theory of quantum gravity, would be mediated by virtual gravitons, and they aren’t constrained by the speed of light.
As far as a name for a galaxy explosion, how about a Monster Space Kablooey?
At least that’s what I think Professor Calvin called it, although Doctor Hobbes, as I remember it, disagreed.
[/QUOTE]
It wasn’t quite that. I think it was horrendous space kablooey. He was speaking about the big bang though, so that doesn’t count.