Boston

Astronomy
Welcome to the Boston Astronomy website ...

This website has been created by and is supported by a group of Boston, MA - area amateur astronomers. It is intended to be a convenient site to access news and information about astronomy and space-related activities of interest to the community and the public.


















Range of Power in the Universe

Below 1 watt

yoctowatt (10−24 watt)

zeptowatt (10−21 watt)

attowatt (10−18 watt)

femtowatt (10−15 watt)

picowatt (10−12 watt)

nanowatt (10−9 watt)

microwatt (10−6 watt)

milliwatt (10−3 watt)

Between 1 and 1000 watts

watt

Above 1000 watts

kilowatt (103 watts)

megawatt (106 watts)

The productive capacity of electrical generators operated by utility companies is often measured in MW. Few things can sustain the transfer or consumption of energy on this scale; some of these events or entities include: lightning strikes, naval craft (such as aircraft carriers and submarines), engineering hardware, and some scientific research equipment (such as supercolliders and large lasers).

For reference, about 10,000 100-watt lightbulbs or 5,000 computer systems would be needed to draw 1 MW. Also, 1 MW equals approximately 1360 horsepower. Modern high-powered diesel-electric railroad locomotives typically have a peak power output of 3–5 MW, whereas a typical modern nuclear power plant produces on the order of 500–2000 MW peak output.

gigawatt (109 watts)

terawatt (1012 watts)

petawatt (1015 watts)

exawatt (1018 watts)

zettawatt (1021 watts)

yottawatt (1024 watts)

Greater than one thousand yottawatts