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Orange Dwarf Star Set to Smash into The Solar System
technologyreview.com ^ | March 12, 2010

Posted on 03/15/2010 8:14:32 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY

A new set of star velocity data indicates that Gliese 710 has an 86 percent chance of ploughing into the Solar System within the next 1.5 million years.

The Solar System is surrounded by thousands of stars, but until recently it wasn't at all clear where they were all heading.

In 1997, however, astronomers published the Hipparcos Catalogue giving detailed position and velocity measurements of some 100,000 stars in our neighbourhood, all gathered by the European Space Agency's Hipparcos spacecraft. It's fair to say that the Hipparcos data has revolutionised our understanding of the 'hood.

In particular, this data allowed astronomers to work out which stars we'd been closer to in the past and which we will meet in the future. It turns out that 156 stars fall into this category and that the Sun has a close encounter with another star (meaning an approach within 1 parsec) every 2 million years or so.

In 2007, however, the Hipparcos data was revised and other measurements of star velocities have since become available. How do these numbers change the figures?

Today, Vadim Bobylev at the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in St Petersburg gives us the answer. He's combined the Hipparcos data with several new databases and found an additional nine stars that have either had a close encounter with the Sun or are going to.

But he's also made a spectacular prediction. The original Hipparcos data showed that an orange dwarf star called Gliese 710 is heading our way and will arrive sometime within the next 1.5 million years.

(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: catastrophism
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To: shibumi

One.
Track.
Mind.


21 posted on 03/15/2010 8:38:44 PM PDT by Salamander (....and I'm sure I need some rest but sleepin' don't come very easy in a straight white vest.......)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Now you have to wait 1.3 million years if the calculations were correct.


22 posted on 03/15/2010 8:39:04 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld ("I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution."-Dr.Wernher Von Braun)
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To: Salamander

23 posted on 03/15/2010 8:39:56 PM PDT by Semper Mark ("Yassir! I nicked the census man!" - "There's a good boy.")
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To: Jet Jaguar; humblegunner

We’re still dealing with Manbearpig. How in the hell are we supposed to also deal with Orangedwarfstar??


24 posted on 03/15/2010 8:40:46 PM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Free ThinkerNY

These things happen from time to time.


25 posted on 03/15/2010 8:41:19 PM PDT by pallis
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To: Markos33

LOL!


26 posted on 03/15/2010 8:41:58 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (How much did your congressmen's vote go for? Mine got two bits. Her going price.)
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To: 70times7

Just make sure to empty your liquor cabinet by that date and turn off the lights.


27 posted on 03/15/2010 8:44:47 PM PDT by 353FMG (What can Islam possibly contribute to the West other than its very destruction?)
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To: SunkenCiv

Ping.


28 posted on 03/15/2010 8:45:40 PM PDT by rdl6989 (January 20, 2013- The end of an error.)
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To: Markos33

29 posted on 03/15/2010 8:46:03 PM PDT by Salamander (....and I'm sure I need some rest but sleepin' don't come very easy in a straight white vest.......)
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To: Screaming_Gerbil

The second view is much prettier.


30 posted on 03/15/2010 8:46:49 PM PDT by Salamander (....and I'm sure I need some rest but sleepin' don't come very easy in a straight white vest.......)
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To: Hoodat
Bush’s fault.

Ya beat me to it.

Women and minorities to be most affected.

31 posted on 03/15/2010 8:47:14 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Oh, crap. Time to start packing.


32 posted on 03/15/2010 8:47:32 PM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud Papa of two new Army Brats! Congrats to my Soldier son and his wife.)
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To: Larry Lucido; Jet Jaguar; humblegunner; Salamander; Slings and Arrows; Markos33
"We’re still dealing with Manbearpig. How in the hell are we supposed to also deal with Orangedwarfstar??"

Channel your inner Velikovsky.
33 posted on 03/15/2010 8:53:49 PM PDT by shibumi ("..... then we will fight in the shade." (Cool Star - *))
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Hmmm, whatever will I do with my time until then...


34 posted on 03/15/2010 8:56:45 PM PDT by phatus maximus ( John 6:29. Learn it, love it, live it.)
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To: Salamander
They didn't say it would hit our atmosphere, just that it might come within the solar system. That allows a lot of room for us to slip by.

All the same, I guess I better not start any long books.

35 posted on 03/15/2010 8:57:15 PM PDT by thulldud (Is it "alter or abolish" time yet?)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

In as much as the solar system (like most of everything else in the physical universe on that scale or larger) is mostly empty space, “smash into” is a bizarre choice of words. Pass through through, wreaking havoc on planetary orbits and causing drastic heating of all the planets, is vastly more probable than “smash[ing] into” anything.


36 posted on 03/15/2010 9:02:28 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know. . .)
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To: thulldud

1.5 million years here, 1.5 million years there, next thing you know, it’s tomorrow.


37 posted on 03/15/2010 9:06:19 PM PDT by Williams (It's the policies, stupid)
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To: All

So, we can mark the Mayan 2012 and Da Vinci 4006 *kaboom* off the list?

What’s Nostradamus take on this?


38 posted on 03/15/2010 9:09:40 PM PDT by Irenic
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To: Free ThinkerNY

That’ll warm the old globe, and change the climate!


39 posted on 03/15/2010 9:12:35 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (U.S. Citizen since 1946: “Made in the USA, by proud American workers!")
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To: Williams

Senator Dirksen, is that you?


40 posted on 03/15/2010 9:13:43 PM PDT by thulldud (Is it "alter or abolish" time yet?)
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