It's... Relativistic
if it’s 8K miles away I can just drive there and put it out.
8,000 miles? We really would be in trouble.
There is no way this Wolf Rayet star is 8000 miles away. Does not compute.
Wow!
> 8,000 miles away
This explains that whole global warming thing.
Miles? Someone screwed up. That should probably be “light years.”
In completely unrelated news, astronomers at Lamestream News University have discovered a new star orbiting between the earth and Los Angeles.
Obama could just sign an executive order preventing gamma rays from hitting Earth.
I can already hear the neighbors turning into crispy critters and going pop pop pop!
Nothing like the smell of bacon on a cool morning!
Good point
by the time we “see” this star go supernova, will there be anyone left to “see” it?
Does GRB radiation travel faster than light?
Not sure which is worse.... seeing the light from a dying star or other ele that kills our species and knowing the GRB is on the way... or never knowing what hit us
What a screwed up reporting:
- 8,000 years, now changed to light years.
- It could happen soon or 1/2 million years from now.
- There is debate if gamma rays would even hit earth.
I don’t think we will pack up our space ship with the family to evacuate just yet.
8,000 light years? That’s still pretty close.
Bush's Fault, of course.
Gamma rays....”Don’t make me angry... you won’t like me when I’m angry...
We’re all gonna die......really.
Seriously though, gamma ray bursts are one of the things that could easily take us out. One of the largest mass extinctions on Earth (the Ordovician extinction) is believed to have been caused by a gamma ray burst.
The thing is, if it happened there is really nothing we can do about it. Additionally, what you said is very true. Any light we see took time to get to us. For instance, our view of the Sun is 8 minutes old. The star light we see is at least 4 years old (the closest star is Proxima Centauri, which is just over 4 light years away), and a lot of the light we see in the night sky took thousands of years to arrive (and thus is showing something that was occurring a long long time ago). Thus, this star could have gone super nova 8,000 years ago and, as you said, we would only be finding out now.
Oh Noes!
Wiki says the inclination is 16% and newer observations indicate 30% so the danger to Earth is little(16%) or none (30%). Also 8,000 light years is IIRC about 6,000 light years to many to be a serious threat to life on Earth.
Obviously the answer is more taxes to the UN.
Always remember that all global problems, real or perceived, require global solutions...