• Question: How big is the explosion?

    Asked by hussain to Ben on 10 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Ben Smart

      Ben Smart answered on 10 Mar 2012:

      Hmm, well it’s not a normal explosion so I’ll answer your question in two parts:

      The centre of the explosion (where we smash stuff together to make the explosion) is really small. So small we can’t even measure exactly how small it is (but it’s about 0.000000000000001 metres across). Even though it’s really small, it’s really really hot, more than 100000 times hotter than the middle of the sun (very hot!).

      All the stuff that’s created in the really small centre of the explosion shoots out over a distance of about 20 metres, like a firework explosion with bits shooting off in different directions.

      So the whole explosion is about 20 metres wide, but the centre of it is rather special and is really really hot.

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