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<ul class="summary-list"><li>An explosion — about 100 times brighter than previously recorded — blinded scientists' instruments.</li><li>Scientists marveled at the power of the gamma-ray jet, which likely marked the birth of a black hole.</li></ul><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brightest-gamma-ray-burst-all-time-blinded-scientist-space-equipment-2023-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">brightest gamma-ray explosion</a> ever caught on record, which was so bright it blinded scientific instruments, just got weirder. </p><p>GRB 221009, first spotted in October 2022, outshone other cosmic explosions on record by "not just a little bit, but a hundred times," George Washington University graduate student Brendan O'Connor <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/991396?" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a press release.</p><p>The explosion earned the nickname BOAT for "Brightest of All Time."</p><p>Astronomers have since been trying to work out what could have made the gamma-ray burst so bright, and may finally have an answer. </p><p>Researchers have discovered that the gamma-ray explosion ejected a jet with an unusual structure which dragged a large amount of stellar material along with it. The discovery, the say, could shed new light on the origins of the universe. </p><h2>Gamma-ray bursts shed light on the origins of stars</h2><div type="image" title="A picture of the sky shows myriads of stars. One is circled in a purple circle, that is the BOAT." height="738" width="985" msid="100878266" hostid="261"></div><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-detect-brightest-high-lightgamma-ray-burst-2019-11">Gamma-ray bursts</a> (GRBs) are hugely powerful explosions, releasing more energy into the universe in a few seconds than our sun expands over the course of its lifetime.</p><p>They happen at the birth of black holes, when a supermassive star <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mysterious-fast-radio-bursts-come-from-dead-stars-2020-11https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-detects-brightest-explosion-ever-recorded-star-collapsing-black-hole-2022-10">collapses</a> in on itself releasing powerful jets of matter that can be spotted millions of light years away. An animation below shows how this works: </p><p>Thanks to their <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mysterious-fast-radio-bursts-come-from-dead-stars-2020-11">brightness</a>, scientists can observe these bursts "all the way back to the first stars," O'Connor said. </p><p>"As we begin to probe this really high redshift, very distant, gamma-ray bursts, we can learn about how stars first formed, what environment they're forming in, what type of elements were existing at these times, and see how this star formation actually evolved over the history of the universe," he said.</p><p>Scientists have spotted about 10,000 of these gamma-ray bursts since the 70s. But this particular burst was relatively close, coming from a star about 2.4 million light-years away, which gives us an unprecedented look into the structure of these bizarre explosions. </p><p>"It's a hugely different event, and based on the brightness and its proximity to us, we expected it to be a once-in-a-century event," said O'Connor. </p><h2>BOAT was particularly weird<div type="image" title="An artist's illustration shows a supermassive star releasing a jet of matter as it collapse onto itself." height="485" width="970" msid="100878267" hostid="261"></div></h2><p>We don't see the explosion from gamma-ray bursts directly. Instead, we see the gamma rays and other rays like X-rays coming off the jet of hot gas released by the explosion, which we're usually only lucky to see if they're aiming straight at our planet. </p><p>The jet itself is usually over in a matter of seconds, but scientists can capture its afterglow, which drags stellar material behind it. This fades quickly, but the BOAT's afterglow lingered much longer than usual, puzzling scientists. </p><p>A new analysis studying the explosion, published in the peer-reviewed journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi1405" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Science Advances</a>, explains why.</p><p>Scientists had typically thought these jets were always "shaped like ice cream cones," Alexander van der Horst, associate professor of physics at George Washington University and study-co author, said in <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/991396?" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a press release.</a></p><p>This mean they tend to be compact and very directed, spreading out neatly through the universe, with the afterglow dragging behind the first wave.</p><p>But the new analysis suggests that the BOAT jet was sloppier, spreading out from a "narrow core with wider, sloping sides," NASA said in a press release.</p><p>"Our work clearly shows that the gamma-ray burst had a unique structure, with observations gradually revealing a narrow jet embedded within a wider gas outflow where an isolated jet would normally be expected," Hendrik Van Eerten, a physicist at the University of Bath and study co-author, said in a <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/991572?" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release.</a></p><h2>BOAT subverted expectations</h2><div type="image" title="Blue concentric circles represent data collected in the afterglow of the jet." height="1620" width="2160" msid="100878268" hostid="261"></div><p>What scientists think happened is that, as the jet was being expelled, it mingled with stellar material which messed with its outflow. </p><p>"The only way to produce a different jet structure and vary the energy is to vary some property of the star that exploded, like its size, mass, density, or magnetic field," said Eleonora Troja, a professor of physics at the University of Rome, who led NuSTAR the observations of the event.</p><p>"That's because the jet has to basically force its way out of the star. So, for example, the amount of resistance it meets would potentially influence the features of the jet."</p><p>This is "exciting" because "we have no way of studying the star that produced this event; it's gone now. But we now have some data giving us clues about how it exploded," said O'Connor, who was an author on this study.</p><p>The analysis demonstrates that the most extreme explosions do not obey the standard physics assumed for normal gamma-ray bursts, he said. </p><p>Van Eerten agrees: "Our model helps not just to understand the BOAT, but also previous brightness record holders that had astronomers mystified about their lack of jet signature.</p><p>Still, according to O'Connor, this finding "a massive step forward in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts," the "equivalent Rosetta stone of long GRBs." </p><p>O'Connor expects BOAT will yield more discoveries yet, as the afterglow is predicted to remain visible to scientists for at least another year. </p>

A gamma-ray explosion that was so bright it blinded scientists' equipment is even weirder than first thought

<ul><li>Scientists have recorded the <keyword id="8371717" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="biggest-gamma-ray">biggest gamma ray</keyword> burst (GRB) to date in the universe.<br /></li><li>The energy released for greater than what the Sun can generate in its entire 10 billion-year lifespan.<br /></li><li>The explosion occurred 4 billion light years from Earth.<br /></li></ul><br />Four billion light years away from Earth, there was an explosion so big that it generated more energy than the Sun can generate in its entire 10 billion-year lifespan.<br /><br />Gamma rays are some of the most energetic and explosive phenomena in the universe. On 14 January 2019, scientists detected the biggest <keyword id="3533998" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="gamma-ray-burst">gamma ray burst</keyword> (GRB) till date. The outbreak was a billion times brighter than visible light, according to results published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1743-9">Nature</a>.<br /><br />GRB 190114C was spotted using Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes on the Canary Islands. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="grb" msid="72222153" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;GRB 190114C as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The gamma ray burst was centred in the green circle, about 800 light years from the host galaxy’s core.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />“Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe and typically release more energy in just a few seconds than our Sun during its entire lifetime – they can shine through almost the entire visible universe,” explained David Berge, head of gamma-ray astronomy at <a href="https://www.desy.de/news/news_search/index_eng.html?openDirectAnchor=1735&amp;two_columns=0">DESY</a>.<br /><br /><strong>Looking for explosions<br /></strong><br />Normally, ground telescopes don’t detect GRBs because most of the high energy radiation is absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, astronomers watch out for signs on Cherenkov radiation — a blue glow that results from GRBs slamming into other atoms and molecules. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="grbchart" msid="72222165" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Mechanics of a gamma ray burst&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />This means that as the GRB hits Earth, the collision can trigger a ‘shower’ of subatomic particles in the planet’s upper atmosphere.<br /><br />But GRBs don’t come with a lot of advance warning and only last a few seconds.<br /><br />The MAGIC telescopes began their observation in record time. It took only 57 seconds from when the GRBs were detected for the telescopes to position themselves and start recording the observations.<br /><br /><strong>The bigger question<br /></strong><br />Even though it’s the first time that such kind of energy has been recorded, scientists still don’t know how such extreme energies are generated.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="grbheader" msid="72222126" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;An artist’s impression of a gamma ray burst triggered by a supernova explosion in which a doomed star’s core collapses to form a black hole. &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>
<br />It’s commonly believed that GRBs are a result of massive stars collapsing into themselves to form blackholes. GRBs could also be the result of neutron stars colliding into one another. Basically, any instance where an atomic nuclei is in decay — gamma rays are a by-product.<br /><br />On Earth, gamma rays are emitted during the nuclear fission phase of nuclear explosions.<br /><br />

An explosion 4 billion light years from Earth released more energy than the Sun can generate in its entire lifespan

<ul class="summary-list"><li>You should only attempt to treat a burn <keyword id="125509" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="at-home">at home</keyword> if it's a minor thermal burn caused by an external heat source like a hot drink or open flame.</li><li>To treat minor <keyword id="6411901" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="burns">burns</keyword> at home first cool the wound with clean cool water, and then apply aloe vera or honey to prevent infection and improve the healing process.</li><li>Radiation, chemical, and electrical burns should be treated by a medical professional. </li><li>This article <a href="https://www.insider.com/insider-medical-review-board" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was medically reviewed</a> by <a href="https://health.tamu.edu/experts/jason-mcknight.html">Jason R. McKnight</a>, MD, MS, a family medicine physician and clinical assistant professor at <a href="https://medicine.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M College of Medicine</a>. </li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/health-reference" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Insider's Health Reference library for more advice.</a></li></ul><p>If you've ever accidentally spilled hot tea on yourself or touched a hot pan, then you know that even minor burns can be painful. While severe burns require immediate medical attention from a physician, some minor burns can be treated at home. </p><p>In this article, we provide four at-home remedies to treat minor burns as well as how to tell when your burn is severe enough to warrant medical aid from a physician.</p><h2><strong>4 home remedies for treating minor burns</strong></h2><p>The following treatments are for minor first and second-degree thermal burns. Thermal burns are any burn from an external heat source like a hot drink, an open flame, or an oven sheet. </p><p>If your thermal burn is more severe or the source of your burn is different, then you should seek medical treatment. Other types of burns include:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/radiation-burn">Radiation burn:</a> A burn from a high-energy form of radiation, like gamma rays, that is usually administered to treat cancer. </li><li><a href="https://dermnetnz.org/topics/chemical-burn/">Chemical burn:</a> A burn from a strong acid or alkaline produce, like toilet bowl cleaners, car battery fluids, and nitric acid used for metal refining and engraving.</li><li><a href="https://dermnetnz.org/topics/electrical-burn/">Electrical burn:</a> An burn caused by exposure to electricity, like from an electrical outlet or a lightning strike.</li></ul><h3><strong>1. Cool the burn with cool water </strong></h3><p>Cool the area by running cool (not cold) water over it for about 5 minutes, says <a href="https://registry.bccnp.ca/ElasticSearch/Details?recordId=ecf392cd-f96e-e211-b19b-00155d020e3d&amp;showSearchResults=Falsealse">Paul Padda</a>, BS, RN, ER at the Nurse at Peace Arch Hospital. This reduces the temperature of the burn, and helps increase blood flow to the area to help with healing. </p><p>Don't cool the area for much longer than 5 minutes or you risk maceration, or softening, of the tissue. Also, avoid any direct application of ice or ice-cold water as this can further damage the tissue and slow down the healing process. And don't run water over an open wound as this can introduce bacteria and make the healing process worse. </p><h3><strong>2. </strong><strong>Apply aloe vera for faster healing</strong></h3><p>Topical aloe vera has antibiotic and antioxidant properties that can help the healing process of minor burns, says Padda. </p><p>One <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305417906007029">literature review</a> found that patients with first and second-degree burns who used aloe vera healed about 8-9 days faster than patients who didn't apply aloe vera. </p><p>Avoid any products that have additives like alcohol, fragrances, or dyes as this may lead to an infection. </p><h3><strong>3. Apply honey to prevent infection</strong></h3><p>Similar to aloe vera, honey has antimicrobial properties that help prevent infection and promote healing. For example, honey contains <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/disease-prone/you-should-rub-honey-on-your-everywhere/">specific enzymes</a> that break down sugars — of which honey has plenty — into hydrogen peroxide, a <a href="https://www.insider.com/does-hydrogen-peroxide-kill-germs-and-viruses">very effective disinfectant</a>.</p><p>Depending on the size of the area, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3188068/">15 to 30 mL of honey</a> can be applied directly to the minor burn or soaked in gauze before application. These steps should happen after the wound has been cleaned and cooled with water. </p><h3><strong>4. Avoid the sun</strong></h3><p>To minimize scarring, protect the burn from the sun's harmful UV radiation as it heals. This means staying in the shade, wearing protective clothing when you're outside or applying sunscreen with <a href="https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/injured-skin/burns/treat-minor-burns">SPF 30</a> or higher. If the burn is still raw, oozing, or open don't apply sunscreen as this could lead to an infection. </p><h2><strong>When to seek medical care</strong></h2><p>There are four types of burns. Usually, first and second degree burns an be treated at home but third and fourth-degree burns will need medical aid. Here's how to tell what degree burn you may have.</p><h3><strong>1. First-degree burns </strong></h3><p>Superficial first-degree burns only affect the outer layer of the skin called the epidermis. Examples include a minor sunburn, or accidentally touching a hot pan for a brief instant. Symptoms are red skin, pain, and a chance of some slight inflammation. </p><p>Usually, first-degree burns will heal on their own within 2-10 days and don't require treatment. However, if the pain gets worse over time, swells, or becomes infected, you should see a physician right away. </p><h3><strong>2. Second-degree burns </strong></h3><p>Partial-thickness, or second-degree, burns affect both the epidermis and dermis, the second layer of skin. Examples include physical sources of heat, like spilling hot water directly on yourself or burning your wrist on an open stove. Symptoms are swelling, redness, blistering, and potential scarring. </p><p>These can usually be treated at home if they are less than <a href="http://ameriburn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/burnfirstaid.pdf">2 to 3 inches</a> (or 7cm) in diameter. If the affected area is larger than 3 inches or on a sensitive area including the face, feet, hands, groin, buttock, or skin over a joint, then seek medical attention as these could lead to further complications. </p><h3><strong>3. Third-degree burns</strong></h3><p>Deep partial thickness, or third-degree, burns damage all three layers of the skin — the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. They often come from hot liquid touching the skin for longer or over a wider area compared to a second-degree burn. </p><p>Symptoms are waxy, white-colored skin or blackened charred skin, a leathery texture, peeling, and numbness. Regardless of the size of these burns, seek medical attention right away.  </p><h3><strong>4. Fourth-degree burns</strong></h3><p>Full thickness, or fourth-degree, burns are extremely severe and extend into the muscle below the skin. Most of the time, they <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3506214/">result </a>from high-voltage electrical burns or severe fire burns. These types of burns tend to lead to a partial or total loss of function of the affected area, and should always be treated by a physician. </p><h2><strong>The bottom line</strong></h2><p>For anything beyond a minor burn, you should seek medical attention right away. Otherwise, it could lead to permanent scarring or infection. You may also, lose function of the affected limb, says Padda. So it's best to er on the side of caution when possible.</p><h2>Related articles from our <a href="https://www.insider.com/health-reference" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Health Reference</a> library:</h2><ul><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/is-coconut-oil-good-for-sunburn"><strong>Coconut is not good for sunburn and it can actually make it worse</strong></a></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.insider.com/does-aloe-help-sunburn">Does aloe help sunburn? Yes, here's why it's one of the best home remedies</a></strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.insider.com/how-to-whiten-teeth-naturally-at-home">How to whiten your teeth naturally, with at-home methods</a></strong></li></ul>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-to-treat-burns-at-home">Insider</a>

How to treat minor burns at home and when to seek medical treatment

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Andromeda_Galaxy_(with_h-alpha).jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Adam Evans</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest galactic neighbor.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main/index.html#.U4Uu0JRdUWl">NASA Swift</a> gamma ray burst mission just spotted an incredibly rare example of the most violent explosion in the universe in our cosmic backyard.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GRBm31?src=hash">Astrophysicists on Twitter got excited</a> when the probe designed to detect the extremely bright pulses of cosmic energy called gamma ray bursts saw a signal in the Andromeda galaxy, our home galaxy's nearest large galactic neighbor.</p>
<p>Here's <a href="http://dualcore.physics.mcgill.ca/HOME/">Robert Rutledge, an astrophysicist studying neutron stars at McGill University in Montreal:</a></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Hmm... a gamma ray burst (image trigger - so low significance) just came at us from M31 -- The Andromeda Galaxy. About 5 minutes ago....</p>
- Robert Rutledge (@rerutled) <a href="https://twitter.com/rerutled/statuses/471403106472058880">May 27, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst">Gamma ray bursts</a> are among the most powerful and mysterious events in our universe. The bursts consist of short pulses of intense radiation that can travel billions of light years and still be observable from Earth. </p>
<p><span>If a gamma ray burst were to happen in our galaxy, and be pointed directly at us, it would probably wipe out our ozone layer and cause a mass extinction. Fortunately, all the bursts we've seen, including this one, are far enough away that they are harmless to life on Earth.</span></p>
<p>Gamma ray bursts were first noticed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_(satellite)#Role_of_Vela_in_discovering_gamma-ray_bursts">Cold War satellites designed to detect Soviet nuclear tests</a>. The bursts that we have observed happened in galaxies billions of light years away. The majority of gamma ray bursts last for a few seconds and appear to be the result of the collapse of enormously massive stars dozens of times the size of our sun.</p>
<p>Some gamma ray bursts shine for only a fraction of a second and have more mysterious origins. One theory is that the short gamma ray bursts are caused by the collision of two neutron stars: the incredibly dense and magnetically powerful remnants of supernovas. <span>Scientists on twitter are hypothesizing that this new one could have been one of those rare collisions. If it was here's how that would look:</span></p>
<p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://twitter.com/astroduff/status/471435290976858112/photo/1">NASA, via Alan Duffy @astroduff on Twitter</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p>Gamma ray bursts are generally seen in galaxies that are billions of light years away. What makes this burst exciting is that it's happening in the Andromeda Galaxy, only about two and a half million light years away. <span>This could be one of the closest ever recorded.</span></p>
<p><span>The actual event causing the burst happened about two and a half million years ago, but the light and radiation from that burst just flew past our home planet in the last few hours.</span></p>
<p>The burst could give astronomers and physicists an enormous amount of data on the origins of these huge explosions. You can follow along with the astronomers' <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GRBm31&amp;src=hash">excitement on twitter with the hashtag #GRBM31</a>.</p>
<p>Until they fully analyze the data, we can't know for sure that this is a gamma ray burst. Some have suggested it could be an "Ultraluminous X-ray Source," which would actually be even more fascinating because we don't know what causes them. <a href="http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/~cott/">Caltech astrophysicist Christian D. Ott</a> thinks this might be a soft gamma repeater, or SGR, a weaker type of burst given off by a neutron star with a strong magnetic field:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>OK folks, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23GRBm31&amp;src=hash">#GRBm31</a> is exciting, but it for sure wasn't energetic enough to be a GRB from a neutron star collision or stellar collapse. SGR?</p>
- Christian D. Ott (@hypercott) <a href="https://twitter.com/hypercott/statuses/471455476614316032">May 28, 2014</a></blockquote>
<p>However this works out, this is an exciting moment in astrophysics.</p>

NASA Just Spotted A Super-Bright Explosion In The Galaxy Next Door

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Get ready, Thursday could be a day for the history books.&#xa0;<p>A team of scientists from Caltech, MIT, and the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration will convene in Washington DC for an "<a href="http://www.ligo.org/news/media-advisory.php">update</a>" on their efforts to detect a cosmic phenomenon called gravitational waves.&#xa0;</p><p>This modest "update," however, could prove to be one of the most important scientific discoveries of the decade, opening the door to a new era of astronomy wherein scientists can actually watch two black holes devour one&#xa0;another or watch one&#xa0;chow down on a neutron star - the densest objects in the cosmos aside from&#xa0;black holes.</p><p>Like many other scientific breakthroughs of our time, this all began with a man named Albert Einstein.&#xa0;One hundred years ago, Einstein first predicted that when mass in the universe accelerates, it generates invisible waves, called gravitational waves.&#xa0;</p><p>So, for example, when two black holes are about to merge, they spiral&#xa0;toward one another, accelerating in the process. This behavior generates gravitational waves that permeate the cosmos,&#xa0;stretching and contracting the fabric of spacetime - like ripples on a pond.</p><p>The only catch about Einstein's theory is that it hasn't been directly&#xa0;confirmed, yet, because no one has ever detected a gravitational wave. But if expectations pan out, that could all change on Thursday at 10:30 AM ET, when the team makes their announcement. You can watch the event live on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyo4DFr4D4I">YouTube</a> or on the stream we've provided at the end of this post.</p><p>Scientists first began listening for gravitational waves with LIGO detectors in 2002, but after eight years of silence, they shut the machines down in 2010 for a major update, which may prove to be exactly what was needed.&#xa0;</p><p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34298363">Last September</a>, the new and improved Advanced LIGO switched on, and now, five months later, there's exciting news that the team might have detected something. While a detection would signal the end of a century-long search, it would provide so much more for the field of astronomy.</p><p>"A discovery is really not an end. A discovery would be the&#xa0;most glorious beginning of something new," <a href="http://phys.columbia.edu/~smarka/">Szabolcs Marka</a>, who is a professor of physics at Columbia University and a member&#xa0;of the LIGO collaboration, told Business Insider.</p><p>He added that gravitational waves will be a revolutionary tool in the study of enigmatic sources like black holes, neutron stars, and supernova explosions.</p><p>To date, astronomers can only observe the environment around black holes and not the objects themselves, but gravitational waves could change that:</p><p>"We have indirect observation of black holes, we have indirect observation of objects around black holes and their behavior indicate that there should be a black hole," Marka said. "Advanced LIGO gives us a chance - through an eventual discovery, we will be able to observe black holes directly."</p><p>And black holes are just the beginning. If Advanced LIGO becomes the gravitational wave detecting machine that scientists hope for, it could prove monumental in studying the way matter behaves at the heart of a neutron star, what triggers a supernova explosion, and what causes gamma ray bursts -&#xa0;the brightest events in the universe.</p><p>There is an opportunity here to open up a whole new universe of human understanding, Marka said. Don't miss the announcement scheduled to take place tomorrow at 10:30 AM ET.</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;</p><p>&#xa0;</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/new-galaxies-space-nasa-galaxy-milky-way-2016-2">Scientists just discovered 883 galaxies that have been hiding in plain sight</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tpdGV0MDE6PgWCQ8-tBSSH4XyTh32nYb" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Scientists are getting ready to make a huge announcement that would uphold a 100-year-old prediction by Einstein - here's how to watch

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>NASA</span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of two neutron stars colliding.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>For the first time ever, astronomers have detected a neutron star collision.</strong></li><li><strong>Gravitational waves picked up by the LIGO and Virgo detectors pinpointed the source to a galaxy 130 million light-years away.</strong></li><li><strong>The collision produced a radioactive "kilonova" that forged hundreds of Earths' worth of platinum, gold, silver, and other heavy elements.</strong></li></ul><p>Platinum and gold are among the most precious substances on Earth, each fetching roughly $1,000 per ounce.</p><p>However, their allure may grow stronger - and weirder - thanks to a groundbreaking new finding about their violent, radioactive, cosmic origins.</p><p>On Monday, scientists <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/2017-nobel-prize-in-physics-gravitational-waves-kip-thorne-rainer-weiss-barry-barish-2017-10">who won a Nobel Prize</a> for their discovery of gravitational waves, or <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gravitational-waves-detected-first-time-ligo-2016-2">ripples in the fabric of space</a>, announced the first-ever detection of the collision of two neutron stars.</p><p>The team alerted astronomers all over the world to the event, helping them point telescopes directly at the crash scene, and recorded unprecedented observations of the aftermath in visible light, radio waves, X-rays, and gamma rays.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://obs.carnegiescience.edu/swope">UC Santa Cruz/Carnegie Observatories</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Swope Telescope was one of several that recorded a neutron star merger's kilonova.</p></div><p></p></div></div>These images revealed a radioactive soup giving birth to unfathomable amounts of platinum, gold, and silver - not to mention the iodine in our bodies, uranium in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-weapons-stockpiles-world-map-2017-8">nuclear weapons</a>, and bismuth in Pepto-Bismol - while blasting those materials deep into space.</p><p>The two neutron stars likely merged to form a black hole, though the tiny bit of neutron star that escaped could get recycled into planets like Earth, where creatures may eventually dig up the metals.</p><p>"The calculations we did suggest most of the matter that came out of this event was in a swirling disk around a black hole. Half of that matter fell in, and half of it got ejected," Brian Metzger, an astrophysicist at Columbia University one of roughly 4,000 researchers involved in the discovery, told Business Insider. "The matter that ended up in your wedding band could have just as well fallen in."</p><p>Astronomers detected the merger from 130 million light-years away in the galaxy NGC 4993 on morning of August 17.</p><p>"This is going to have a bigger impact on <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> and human understanding, in many ways, than the first discovery of gravitational waves," Duncan Brown, an astronomer at Syracuse University and a member of the research collaboration, told Business Insider. "We're going to be puzzling over the observations we've made with gravitational waves and with light for years to come."</p><h2>When two city-size atoms collide</h2><p>Albert Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves a century ago, but he didn't believe they'd ever be detected due to their extraordinarily weak energies.</p><p>The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (<a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/">LIGO</a>) in the US defied Einstein in November 2015, when it "heard" the elusive phenomenon for the first time and proved its existence. Europe's new Virgo gravitational wave detector has also come online since then and worked with LIGO to make this fifth detection possible.</p><p>Yet unlike the four previous events, the latest one wasn't created by colliding black holes. Its signal was weaker, closer to Earth by hundreds of millions of light-years, and lasted 100 seconds as opposed to 1 second.</p><p>Brown and others think the new gravitational wave signal, dubbed "GW170817", is revolutionary because it provides clues about how the heaviest elements found on Earth formed in space. Iron and lighter elements, for example, are thought to form in giant stars that explode as supernovas - blasts that are brighter than billions of suns.</p><p>"Some of the heavy elements are made in supernova explosions, but it turns out this can't explain the abundances," Brown said. "They didn't appear to be coming from supernova explosions, and so people have wondered for a long time where they came from."</p><p>Researchers eventually hypothesized that pairs of colliding neutron stars could do the trick.</p><p>Most stars in the universe form in pairs, and the same is true of massive stars. Unlike the sun, however, big stars become supernovas when they die. And at that point, their own gravity crushes them into one of two forms: a black hole (if they're heavier than about three suns) or a neutron star (if they're between about 1.5 and three suns' worth of mass).</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>LIGO-Virgo/Daniel Schwen/Northwestern</span></p><p class="caption">The size of a neutron star (top) compared to the Chicago skyline.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The latter is essentially one big atomic nucleus, since its gravity is powerful enough to squash all the particles together into an orb roughly the width of a metropolitan city - just one teaspoon weighs billions of tons.</p><p>"You smash these two things together at one-third the speed of light, and that's how you make gold," Brown said. "Turns out it's not the Philosopher's Stone, it's not the things alchemists were looking at thousands of years ago."</p><h2>100 Earths of gold forged in 1 second</h2><p>Metzger was among the first to seriously explore how this could happen.</p><p>He said a neutron star merger is a "messy process" that spills some of the stars' guts into space, like "squeezing a tube of toothpaste" - and accelerates those particles to a fraction of the speed of light while heating them to 10 million degrees.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Fermilab</span></p><p class="caption">An illustration of a neutron star collision creating platinum, gold, and other precious heavy elements.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"If you just ejected all of this stuff and it did nothing, it'd get extremely cold and we'd never be able to see it," Metzger said, though that's not what happened on August 17, of course.</p><p>"The heaviest elements, you can't create them through nuclear fusion in a star. The way you form them is through neutron-capture," Metzger said.</p><p>The process, known appropriately as the rapid process (or r-process), goes like this: As the two neutron stars spiral toward each other - each about 1.4 times the mass of the sun - they shed high-energy neutrons. Those neutrons smash into each other while moving outward, building giant atomic cores. But huge super-atoms are unstable, so they almost immediately break apart and decay into smaller atoms.</p><p>The same thing happens in nuclear reactors, which bombard uranium with neutrons to form the heavier element plutonium. A neutron star merger performs the r-process on a cosmic scale, bleeding off enough radioactive energy from decaying super-atoms to be visible from millions of light-years away.</p><p>In 2010, Metzger coined this flash of radioactive light a "kilonova" because calculations showed it'd be dimmer than a supernova yet about 1,000 times brighter than a nova (a flash that occurs when a star is born).</p><p>Scientists have seen what they suspected were kilonovas before, but couldn't confirm the masses of the two objects as happened with GW170817.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>1M2H Collaboration/UC Santa Cruz/Carnegie Observatories</span></p><p class="caption">The first neutron star collision ever detected changed color from blue to red four days after it was found.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Their observations of the recent kilonova revealed a striking tally of materials created: 50 Earth masses' worth of silver, 100 Earth masses of gold, and 500 Earth masses of platinum.</p><p>The gold alone is worth about 100 octillion dollars at today's market price, according to Metzger, or $100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 written out (1 followed by 29 zeroes).</p><p>"You'd need Captain Kirk to go and get it for you, though, so we're not in any danger of disrupting the market right now," Brown said.</p><h2>A new era of astronomy is beginning</h2><p>In the worldwide call to arms on August 17, and in the days and months that followed, more than a third of all astronomers on the planet stepped up to help analyze and make sense of the event.</p><p>Vicky Kalogera, a member of the LIGO collaboration and an astrophysicist at Northwestern University, said she was one of nine people who wrote the main research study about the discovery. The writing process took the team two weeks of 12- to 16-hour international conference calls with hundreds of people from 910 institutions. The printed list of 4,000-or-so authors runs 28 pages long.</p><p>"It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life," Kalogera told Business Insider, and added that more discoveries are on the way.</p><p>"These are rare events. For a galaxy like the one we're observing, it's somewhere between 30 and 470 neutron star mergers per million years," Kalogera said. "But LIGO is not sensitive only to this particular galaxy. We should see a few per year, because we're listening to millions of galaxies."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>LIGO</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Brown said LIGO entered a planned year-long upgrade shortly after the experiment detected GW170817. (LIGO was last <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ligo-detecting-gravitational-waves-more-sensitive-2016-11">booted up in November 2016</a> and ran through August 2017.)</p><p>After the new work is finished in 2018, he said, LIGO should have a 50% boost in range - allowing it to gaze another 500 million light-years deeper into space and time. And in the early 2020s, a Japanese detector called KAGRA and perhaps an Indian detector will join forces to listen to even more of the universe.</p><p>Researchers hope these improvements will reveal the secrets of a nearby supernova - perhaps Betelgeuse, which could explode at any moment.</p><p>"In some sense, this is the next big undiscovered country for gravitational waves," Brown said. "But we're only at the beginning of gravitational-wave astronomy, and we've been rewarded with these incredible discoveries."</p> <p class="tagline">Get the latest Gold price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/gold-price"> here.</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/2017-nobel-prize-in-physics-gravitational-waves-kip-thorne-rainer-weiss-barry-barish-2017-10">Scientists won the Nobel Prize for detecting gravitational waves - here's why that matters</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Astronomers just proved the incredible origin of nearly all gold, platinum, and silver in the universe

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><ul><li><strong>Nuclear bombs are extremely deadly weapons, but their worst effects are confined to a limited zone.</strong></li><li><strong>A government safety expert says its entirely possible to survive a nuclear explosion and its aftereffects.</strong></li><li><strong>The prospects for survival are even better with several minutes of warning before a blast, as Hawaii's ballistic missile threat system provides.</strong></li><li><strong>Go inside a strong building, move toward its center, and shelter away from windows, doors, and exterior walls to best protect yourself.</strong></li><li><strong>Avoid radioactive fallout that arrives minutes later by staying indoors, ideally below-ground in a basement.</strong></li></ul><p><br>When Hawaii's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-missile-range-united-states-nuclear-bomb-2017-11">ballistic missile</a> threat system blared across the state on January 13, many people didn't know where to go, what to do, or if they could even survive a nuclear attack.</br></p><p>For 38 minutes, the false alarm sowed confusion, fear, and, pandemonium, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hawaii-missile-attack-alert-experience-2018-1">especially among tourists</a>. Some hotel guests peered through windows and doors to catch a glimpse of the incoming threat. Others scrambled to their rooms to stuff a bag and dash for the car (which you should <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/survive-nuclear-attack-fallout-shelter-cars-2017-5">never do</a> in a nuclear attack).</p><p>One married couple, who was town from St. Louis, Missouri, rebuffed their hotel's instructions to stay inside and instead stepped out onto nearby Waikiki Beach.</p><p>"We were afraid of being inside a building and getting crushed. Like in 9-11," the couple told Business Insider in an email, referring to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "We were afraid to follow all of the hotel employees calmly telling us to go into a ball room."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>That is until one of them Googled "safety nuclear bomb how shelter" from the beach - and found a Business Insider article titled, "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-survive-nuclear-attack-fallout-radiation-2017-6">If a nuclear bomb goes off, this is the most important thing you can do to survive</a>" in the search results.</p><p>Our story advises to go inside if there's a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-explosion-youtube-video-playlist-llnl-2017-12">nuclear explosion</a>, which the couple said they then did.</p><p>But the scenario in that story is about what to do <em>after</em> a nuclear weapon blows up by surprise, such as in a terrorist attack; the goal is to limit exposure to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nukemap-blast-effects-radioactive-fallout-direction-2017-9">radioactive fallout</a> that arrives minutes after a detonation.</p><p>The story does not address how to act if there's an incoming <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-intercontinental-ballistic-missiles-work-north-korea-2017-7">ICBM</a> launched by a nation like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reason-north-korea-needs-nukes-deterrence-vs-expansion-2018-1">North Korea</a>. As Hawaii's false-alarm suggests, the latter may come with <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korean-nuclear-strike-united-states-arrival-times-2017-8">a few minutes to a half-hour</a> or more of warning time.</p><p>"The good news is the 'get inside, stay inside, stay tuned' phrase works for both for the threat of a potential nuclear detonation as well as a nuclear detonation that has occurred," <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/ecpe/faculty/brooke-buddemeier/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brooke Buddemeier</a>, a health physicist and expert on radiation and emergency preparedness at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Business Insider.</p><p>However, Buddemeier - who has worked for more than 15 years with federal, state, and local stakeholders on response plans to nuclear disaster scenarios - said there are some important differences that can improve the chance of survival.</p><p>"Having a plan and knowing what to do can really help alleviate a lot of anxiety," he said.</p><p>Here's how to act and where to take shelter if you see or hear an alert for an incoming ballistic missile or other nuclear threat.</p><h2>A flash, a burst, and a blast</h2><p><br>Knowing what you're trying to avoid can help keep you safe. All nuclear blasts are marked by a handful of important effects:</br></p><ol><li>A flash of light</li><li>A pulse of thermal (i.e. heat) energy</li><li>A pulse of nuclear radiation</li><li>A fireball</li><li>An air blast</li><li>Radioactive fallout</li></ol><p>The first three arrive almost simultaneously, since they travel at light-speed, though thermal radiation can last several seconds and inflict severe burns miles from a blast site. The last two effects travel close together, but the air blast goes much further, and it causes the most damage in a nuclear explosion by tumbling vehicles, toppling weak buildings, and throwing debris. The majority of fallout arrives last, since it's lofted high into the sky and sprinkles down.</p><p>There are two upshots. Going inside can greatly limit or even block these devastating effects. Also, a nuclear weapon's power is not infinite - it's limited to the device's explosive yield. This makes a single blast or even a limited nuclear exchange survivable for most people.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Arms control experts suspect a nation like North Korea may have missile-ready warheads that would explode with 10-30 kilotons' worth of TNT. That ranges from less than to roughly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korea-now-making-missile-ready-nuclear-weapons-us-analysts-say/2017/08/08/e14b882a-7b6b-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.b6969cebb5e8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">twice the yield</a> of either nuclear bomb the US dropped on Japan in 1945.</p><p>The worst destruction, where the chance of survival is least likely, is confined to a "severe damage zone." For a 10-kiloton blast - equivalent to two-thirds of the Hiroshima bomb blast, or 5,000 Oklahoma City truck bombings - that's about a half-mile radius.</p><p>But even in a 100-kiloton explosion, which is 10 times larger, and North Korea may be capable of delivering via a miniaturized <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-test-evidence-2017-9">thermonuclear weapon</a>, Buddemeier said the severe damage zone is about a mile in radius.</p><p>"You don't need a Civil <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> fallout shelter," he said. "The protection you can get from just being inside a normal building will significantly increase your chances of avoiding injury."</p><p>Not all structures are created equally, though, and you may want to move after the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/moab-airburst-bomb-explanation-2017-4">air blast</a> has passed.</p><h2>Where to seek shelter before an atomic blast</h2><p><br>Buddemeier said the last place you want to be during a nuclear detonation is inside a car.</br></p><p>Vehicles offer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/survive-nuclear-attack-fallout-shelter-cars-2017-5">almost no protection from radiation</a>, including fallout, and a driver can experience dazzle (or flash blindness), which lasts for 15 seconds to a minute.</p><p>"The rods and cones of your eyes get overloaded and kind of have to reboot," Buddemeier. "It's just long enough to lose control of your car. If you happen to be driving at speed on the roadways, and you and all the other drivers around you are suddenly blind, I think that would probably result in crashes and injuries and road blockages."</p><p>The best move if there's a missile alert is get to the closest place where you can safely pull over, get out, and make your way into a building.</p><p>"When you go inside, go into the interior middle of the building, or a basement," he said. "This would prevent injuries from flying glass from the blast, it would prevent dazzle from the blast, and it would prevent thermal burns."</p><p>The deeper and lower in the building you can get, and the further you can get from windows (which can shatter), doors (which can fly open), and exterior walls (which can cave in), the better your odds.</p><p>"When I think of where I would go for protection from prompt effects and from the blast wave, in particular, I think of the same kinds of things that we do for tornadoes," Buddemeier said. "If your house is going to be struck by a wall of air, or a tornado, or a hurricane, you want to be in a place that is structurally sound."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Another tip: steer clear of rooms with a lot of ceiling tiles, fixtures, or moveable objects in general.</p><p>"Be in an area where, if there's a dramatic jolt, things aren't going to fall on you," he said.</p><p>At his office building, Buddemeier said he'd go to the stairwell: "It's actually in the core of the building, so it has concrete walls, and it doesn't have a lot of junk in it. So that would be an ideal place to go."</p><p>At home, where he lives in a three-story condo building, he'd head toward the first floor and move as much toward its center as possible.</p><p>"I do not have a basement, but if I did, that's where I'd go," Buddemeier said. "The storm cellar Auntie Em has in Kansas is great, too."</p><p>Staying inside is also key to limiting how much invisible nuclear radiation produced by a blast will reach your body. Too much exposure over a short time can damage the body enough to limit its ability to fix itself, fight infection, and perform other functions, leading to a dangerous condition called <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-lessen-the-effects-of-radiation-poisoning-from-a-nuclear-disaster-2011-3">acute radiation sickness or syndrome</a>.</p><p>It typically takes about 750 millisieverts (mSv) of exposure over several hours or less to make a person sick, or roughly 100 times the amount of <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/7790" target="_blank" rel="noopener">background radiation</a> an American receives each year. A 10-kiloton blast can deliver this much exposure within a radius of <a href="http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq5.html#nfaq5.1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about a mile</a>, or inside the "moderate damage zone." (Several miles away, radiation dosage drops to tens of millisieverts or less for anyone not in a shelter.)</p><p>But Buddemeier says most charts are based on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-explosion-youtube-video-playlist-llnl-2017-12">explosions in the desert</a>.</p><p>"There's no assumption that there's some kind of blocking going on," he said - which is all the more reason to put as much concrete, steel, and other radiation-absorbing building materials between you and a blast. Buddemeier said a decent shelter can reduce your exposure by about half.</p><p>The shelter you find before a blast, however, may not be the best place to stay afterward.</p><h2>How to avoid radioactive fallout after an explosion</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The next danger to avoid is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-survive-nuclear-attack-fallout-radiation-2017-6">radioactive fallout</a>: a mixture of fission products (or radioisotopes) that a nuclear explosion creates by splitting atoms. Nuclear explosions loft this material high into the atmosphere as dust-, salt-, and sand-sized particles, and it can take up to 15 minutes to fall to the ground. High-altitude winds can make it <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nukemap-blast-effects-radioactive-fallout-direction-2017-9">sprinkle over hundreds of square miles</a>, though it's most intense near the blast site.</p><p>The danger is from fission products that further split up or decay. During this process, many shoot out gamma rays: an invisible yet highly energetic form of light that can deeply penetrate the body and inflict significant radiation damage.</p><p>But a nuclear terrorist attack would probably create more radioactive fallout than a missile-launched warhead. That's because warheads are often designed to explode high above a target - not close to the ground, where their fireballs can suck up and irradiate thousands of tons of dirt and debris.</p><p>Regardless, Buddemeier says sheltering in place for at least 12 to 24 hours is a key way to survive the threat of fallout, since that's how long the worst of this radiation usually lasts.</p><p>"If your ad hoc blast-protection shelter is not that robust, and there's a bigger robust building nearby, or a building that has a basement, you may have time to move to that building for your fallout protection after the detonation has occurred," Buddemeier said.</p><p>He added that, depending on your distance from the blast, you may get 10-15 minutes to move to a better shelter for fallout. Ideally this is a windowless basement, where soil and concrete can help block a lot of radiation.</p><p>Buddemeier says that at his basement-less condo, he'd move to the center of the middle floor after a blast "because the fallout is going to land on the ground around my house, and that first floor would have slightly higher exposure than the second floor."</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Yet he added that it's best to hunker down in your blast shelter if you're unsure whether it's safe to move; fires and obstructive debris, for example, will be widespread.</p><p>"The most important thing in both cases is to be inside when the event occurs, either when the detonation occurs or when the fallout arrives," Buddemeier said. (A 2014 study suggests that waiting an hour <em>after</em> fallout arrives, then moving to a better location that's within 15 minutes, can be a smart idea <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-explosion-fallout-radiation-survival-shelter-2017-3">in limited situations</a>.)</p><p>Buddemeier is a fan of the phrase <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/survive-nuclear-terrorism-psa-los-angles-ventura-county-2017-8">go in, stay in, tune in</a>: Get to your fallout shelter, stay in 12-24 hours, and tune in with a radio, phone, or other device for official instructions on when to evacuate and what route to take to avoid fallout.</p><p>"Fallout casualties are entirely preventable," he previously told Business Insider. "In a large city ... knowing what to do after an event like this can literally save hundreds of thousands of people from radiation illness or fatalities."</p><h2>Other tips for making out of a nuclear disaster alive</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>There are <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-07/documents/pags_comm_tool_p9.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">many more strategies</a> to increase your odds of survival.</p><p>Having <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuke-blast-survival-gear-2017-7">basic emergency supplies</a> in kits at home, work, and in your car will help you prepare for and respond to <a href="https://www.ready.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">any disaster</a>, let alone a radiological one.</p><p>For preventing exposure to fallout after a blast, tape plastic over entryways or broken windows at your shelter, as well as turn off any cooling or heating systems that draw in outside air. Drinking bottled water and pre-packaged food is also a good idea.</p><p>And if you've been exposed to fallout, there's a process to remove that radioactive contamination:</p><ul><li>Take off your outer layer of clothes, put them into a plastic bag, and remove the bag from your shelter.</li><li>Shower if you can, thoroughly washing your hair and skin with soap or shampoo (no conditioner), or use a wet cloth.</li><li>Blow your nose to remove any inhaled fallout.</li><li>Flush your eyes, nose, and facial hair (including eyebrows and eyelashes) with water or wipe them with a wet cloth.</li><li>Put on uncontaminated clothes (e.g. from a drawer or plastic bag).</li></ul><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/pills-drug-nuclear-attack-fallout-survival-gear-2018-1">Potassium iodide or KI pills</a>, while often billed as anti-radiation drugs, are anything but fallout cure-alls. Buddemeier estimated that radioiodine is just 0.2% of the overall exposure you may face outdoors, and said the pills are more helpful for addressing longer-term concerns about food-supply contamination. (The government will <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-07/documents/pags_comm_tool_p9.pdf">provide the pills for free</a> if they're needed, according to the FDA.)</p><p>The single-most important thing to remember if a nuclear bomb is supposed to explode, he says, is to shelter in place.</p><p>"There were survivors in Hiroshima within 300 meters of the epicenter," Buddemeier said. "They weren't in [buildings] to be protected, they just happened to be in there, and what major injuries they received were from flying glass."</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:54%"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:54%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-there-are-nuclear-fallout-shelter-signs-on-buildings-in-nyc-2017-8">Here's why there are nuclear fallout shelter signs on buildings in NYC</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div></hr>

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