Giant star caught swallowing three planets

New Scientist ^ | 09/17/03 | Emma Young

[SteveH]

Is it conceivable that our sun could even swallow Uranus?

(well SOMEONE had to bring it up ;-)

[dinasour]

star burp bump

[mhking]

Makes us look very insignificant in the overall scheme of Creation, indeed. More proof that God is good.

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[RightWhale]

a great "S"

Tnx for pointing that out. The image was split arbitrarily right along the galactic plane. I was kind of wondering where the other half of the Milky Way was, and there it is wrapped around the edge of the image.

[Servant of the 9]

The star, known as V838 Monocerotis

I thought Monocerotis V838 was the virus that went around last winter?

So9

[Doctor Stochastic]

The data also reveals the presence of large amounts of lithium and barium,...

Indicates a relatively calm star undergoing a bowel examination.

[Redleg Duke]

What did Bush know, and when did he know it!

It is obvious that his administration must be fired for allowing this to happen over 40,000 years ago!

[Night Hides Not]

Giant Star Caught Swallowing Three Planets - Minorities and Women Hurt Most

Surprised nobody posted this yet.

[Redleg Duke]

What did Bush know, and when did he know it!

It is obvious that his administration must be fired for allowing this to happen over 40,000 years ago!

[twigs]

remind me of the birth of my four children... without the annoying screaming from my wife

I hope that your wife is not a freeper. Oh, four children. She's too busy to freep!

[steve8714]

she seems to have engulfed many planets.

[Mr. Mojo]

Existing models of what will happen when our Sun expands to become a red giant, in about one billion years, suggest that Venus and Mercury will both be engulfed. The likely fate of the Earth is unclear

I'll go out on a limb and say that when our Sun runs out of hydrogen, enters the red giant stage, and engulfs Mercury and Venus, we're f/ked.

[Night Hides Not]

Existing models of what will happen when our Sun expands to become a red giant, in about one billion years, suggest that Venus and Mercury will both be engulfed. The likely fate of the Earth is unclear.

Democrats are probably outraged that the Bush administration hasn't created a program to deal with this. After all, we're only talking about a thousand millenia before the unthinkable happens.

I'm no scientist, but if Venus and Mercury are both engulfed, we'll have some real global warming to deal with!

[RangerHobbit]

To everybody here: WOW! What great wit and humor.

;-) ;-) ;-)

Boy, I haven't seen the likes of this since the old days at the Atlantic Monthly web forum.

You know that entire galaxies gobble each other up too. I wonder what the surgeon general would have to say about that kind of gluttony?

[UCANSEE2]

There was a thread the other day discussing the fact that there are too many comets if the Universe is umpteen billion years old.

Scientists can't figure out where new ones come from.

This article provides the answer.

HEre is the other thread :comets

[talleyman]

Monocerotis bit my sister once

[Stingray51]

I guess what you are saying is that the universe is so vast that we aren't as significant as many think we are.

I reach the opposite conclusion, i.e., that the entire vastness of the universe is the stage which exists for the purpose of providing a physical location for the story of humanity to play out, and that its very vastness is indicative of how important the human struggle is. Which makes sense from a Christian perspective (to me at least) because if God thought mankind was important enough to send His Son to die for, it would not be surprising if He wanted to provide a mind-bogglingly vast universe as background for something so significant.

[petuniasevan]

April 2, 2003 APOD.

Movie time!

[holdmuhbeer]

now if only i could get my wife to swallow

[petuniasevan]

Did you know that the APOD is reposted here on FR each day?


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/t-apod/browse