From: howard@sharps.astro.wisc.edu (Greg Howard)
Subject: Re: Gamma Ray Bursters How energetic could they be?
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Astronomy Department
Lines: 40
NNTP-Posting-Host: uwast.astro.wisc.edu

In article <1993Apr26.200406.1@vax1.mankato.msus.edu> belgarath@vax1.mankato.msus.edu writes:
>In article <1rgvjsINNbhq@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>, jfc@athena.mit.edu (John F Carr) writes:
>> 
>> 
>> How much energy does a burster put out?  I know energy depends on
>> distance, which is unknown.  An answer of the form _X_ ergs per
>> megaparsec^2 is OK.
>> 
>different spheres: R=.25pc(Oort Cloud Radius), R=22.5pc(at the edge of the
>galaxy), R=183.5pc or the edge of the galactic corona, and lastly at a
>R=8800Mpc.  
>        For a radius of .25 pc, we found an L around 10^32 erg/sec.  Pretty
>energetic for close by.  for the coronal model, we found around 10^43 erg/sec.
>And lastly, for the cosmological model an L=10^53. That's what you'd call
>moderately energetic, I'd say.  Any suggestions about what could put out that
>much energy in one second? 
>                                                -jeremy
>
>

Supernovae put out 10^53 or 10^54 (i forget which, but it's only an
order of magnitude...).  Not in gamma rays, though.  You'd hafta get
all of that into gammas if they were at 9 Mpc, but if a decent fraction
of the SN output was in gammas it could reasonably be extragalactic 
(but closer than 9 Mpc).  I dunno SN theory so well, but I can't think
of how to get many gammas out.  Maybe I should look it up.

Big radio galaxies can put out 10^46 erg/s *continually*.  That's just
in the radio... there are a lot of gammas around them, too, but "bursts"?
Nah.

Neither of these should be taken as explanations... just trying to show
that those energies *are* produced by things we know about.


greg




