Posted on 03/05/2008 1:07:09 PM PST by Squidpup
Earth could be in for a neighborhood dispute with a death star, according to an Australian astronomer.
A spectacular rotating pinwheel system just down the astronomical road from Earth — 8,000 light years away — includes an unstable Wolf-Rayet star that could explode.
Eight years ago, WR104 was discovered in the constellation Sagittarius by Sydney University astronomer Peter Tuthill.
A Wolf-Rayet star is the last step on the way to a supernova — the explosion of a star at the end of its life.
Images from the Mauna Kea in Hawaii telescope show that every eight months the two stars at the centre of the pinwheel orbit each other, leaving a trail of hot gas, carbon and dust.
"Viewed from Earth, the rotating tail appears to be laid out on the sky in an almost perfect spiral," Tuthill said. "It could only appear like that if we are looking nearly exactly down on the axis of the binary system."
Tuthill and his team worry this box-seat view might put us in the firing line when the system finally explodes.
"Sometimes, supernovae like the one that will one day destroy WR104 focus their energy into a narrow beam of very destructive gamma-ray radiation along the axis of the system," he warns. "If such a 'gamma-ray burst' happens, we really do not want Earth to be in the way."
Even a short gamma-ray burst at supernova strength could zap away half the Earth's ozone layer, drastically increasing the amount of deadly space radiation that penetrates our atmosphere.
One leading theory blames the Ordovician mass extinction of 443 million years ago on such an interstellar gamma-ray burst.
There's no need to move planets just yet, however, because Tuthill is uncertain whether Earth is precisely on WR104's axis.
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(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If Clinton had the power to do so, there is no doubt she would explode the thing unless she was given the Presidency.
Anyone who believe such stuff is silly, they don’t know the slightest thing about deep space objects, nothing at all, yet they report it as fact, they aren’t even sure what Pluto is, honestly, all this deep space “science” is pure bunk.
Worry about it 8,000 years after it happens...
Well we only have 8000 years to figure out what we should do. Course it may have gone nova 7999 years ago and we won’t know about it till next year. In any case there isn’t anything we can do anyway.
Great, something else to worry about.
Isn’t waxy build-up, getting my kids through college, Hilary-Billary back in the WH and moslem terrorists enough?
The red giant Beutelguese is only 600 light years away. When that one goes off, you’ll be able to get a sunburn in the middle of the night.
What I want to know is...how did SUVs cause this?
Uh . . If it is relevant to us and the next generations of several thousand years, it has ALREADY exploded. (8,000 light years away!)
Which could be tomorrow. Remember, we’re seeing light that is 8000 years old. 7999 years ago, the star *could have* exploded, and we’d find out about it in a couple months.
Not that there’s anything to worry about!
“Even a short gamma-ray burst at supernova strength could zap away half the Earth’s ozone layer, drastically increasing the amount of deadly space radiation that penetrates our atmosphere.”
Big deal. We wiped out half the ozone layer with spray cans.
Well by god let just go up there and investigate this thing!
which could have been 7999.998 years ago.
“there isn’t anything we can do anyway.”
We could sacrifice Al Gore to the gods.
It could have already bursted.
The gamma burst could already be on it’s way.
We wouldn’t know it until it arrived, at the speed of light, along with any warning indications.
Could be next millennium, century, next decade, next year, next month, next week, tomorrow.
Eat. Drink. Be merry. Leave a big carbon footprint.
Tomorrow we fry.
OK, give them a bigger research grant . . . in 8,000 years!
The stuff tin-foil hats are made of.
But if it is 8,000 light years away, we are viewing it as it existed 8,000 years ago.
Have your people get back to my people in about 5000 to 7000 years.
That will be something.
So what if it happened 7999 years, 364 days ago?
"Where's the Ka-Boom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering Ka-Boom."
We could sacrifice Al Gore to the gods.Brilliant, that's brilliant!
There’s nothing “tinfoil” about it. The Universe can be a nasty place, and we are not immune from it’s nastiness. There is however no point in worrying about it because, like an asteroid impact, a supervolcano or a mega tsunami nothing one can do except bend over and kiss it goodbye.
“In any case there isn’t anything we can do anyway.”
Like so many other unknowns, we can at least busy ourselves with worrying about it.
Don’t forget your towel.
How do you know it did not already happen 7,998 years ago and we only have two years left before the light arrives?
Is this the latest too stupid to breathe talking point? I've seen it twice on FR this week. It really embarrasses the site.
Don’t know about the gamma ray Death Star, but the aurora last night was bright enough to read by. Half the sky was lit up.
Oh, no! Not Earth!
That's where I keep all my stuff!
When’s this supposed to happen?
Dec. 22 2012??????
I keep watching this and I’ll hypnotize myself
So how fast can Superman fly? How long would an 8,000 light year trip take the man of steel.
What a good idea! Let's do that ... whether it helps or not.
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Now there's a solution!
It’s the only planet with chocolate.
All the continents moved to the South Pole and it got really, really cold.
Gamma rays did that?
Probably futile...but still worth a shot.
So tonight I'm gonna party like it's 2011.
of course, if we aren’t on the axis, even by just a little [undetectable] bit,
we could be far enough out of the path to not even be able to measure its effect.
There’s no point acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.
At least now I know what tonight’s topic will be on “Coast-to-Coast”.
Bet you he/she also believes the moon landings were faked.
We could do that even if there is no danger. So it’s a great idea!
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