The big question is how much of the energy would get transferred in practice.<p>I agree that 3 solar masses worth of electromagnetic radiation at 1 light year distance would feel like a nuke going off.  What I don&#x27;t know is to what extent the energy of the equivalent gravitational waves (which _would_ have a lot of energy I agree) would actually get transferred to things we care about, like the atmosphere and us.  If it&#x27;s a few percent, say, we&#x27;d clearly be in trouble.  If it&#x27;s more like what neutrinos do, it would probably be detectable but probably not by unaided human senses.<p>I tried doing some quick looking around for estimates of gravitational wave coupling and energy transfer and didn&#x27;t find anything so far...