Posted on 03/14/2010 7:24:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
An orange dwarf star named Gliese 710 is powering in our direction and an astronomer has calculated an 86 percent chance of the interstellar interloper smashing through the Oort Cloud, located in the outermost reaches of our solar system. This could have the devastating effect of scattering the icy Oort Cloud objects (or OCOs), causing them to plunge toward the sun and the inner planets, potentially bombarding Earth with comets... It is hypothesized that close encounters of the stellar kind have kicked OCOs out of the Oort Cloud in the past, creating some of the long period comets we see today, such as comet Hale Bopp. It is also thought that such encounters could periodically cause mass extinction events on Earth through comet impacts. Although the star -- currently located 63 light years from Earth and approximately half the mass of our sun -- has been known to be heading for us for some time, this is the first time such a high probability for a close encounter has been calculated. But could Gliese 710 penetrate even deeper into the solar system? Possibly, although those odds are more cheery. The chances of the star reaching as deep as the Kuiper Belt (near the orbit of Pluto) is around 1 in 1000. This might not be an imminent threat, and it's debatable whether any human descendants will be watching the cosmic flyby, it's nice to know when the next risk of comet bombardment may occur. Although I doubt we'd be able to do much about it anyway.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
;’)
He blasted through quite a few starlets in his day.
;’)
Is that for the original movie, or has there been a remake? The books were pretty darned awful, but the movie made up for it through the sheer ridiculousness of the dialogue. :’)
LOL
-PJ
Check the bottled water and purifying tablets while you’re down there.
Paragraphs are our friends.
Good thing, they *may* be the only ones some people have. ;’) :’P
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