An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A unit of energy equal to 10⁴⁴ → joules or 10⁵¹ → ergs, corresponding to the amount of energy liberated in a typical → supernova explosion. It is used by some theoreticians.

See also: In honor of Hans Bethe (1906-2005), Nobel Prize in Physics (1967), for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.
The unit name was proposed by Steven Weinberg (1933-) in 2006 for Bethe’s contributions to the supernova research aftre 1980.