It's the necromonger armada!
Posted on 08/16/2007 6:36:23 AM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A large star in its death throes is leaving a huge, turbulent tail of oxygen, carbon and nitrogen in its wake that makes it look like an immense comet hurtling through space, astronomers said on Wednesday.
Nothing like this has ever previously been witnessed in a star, according to scientists who detected it using NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, an orbiting space telescope that observes the cosmos in ultraviolet light.
This tail, spanning a stunning distance of 13 light-years, was detected behind the star Mira, located 350 light-years from Earth in the "whale" constellation Cetus.
"There's a star with a tail in the tail of the whale," said one of the researchers, astronomer Mark Seibert of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena, California.
A light year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.
Rocketing through our Milky Way galaxy at 80 miles per second (130 km per second) -- literally faster than a speeding bullet -- the star is spewing material that scientists believe may be recycled into new stars, planets and maybe even life.
"We believe that the tail is made up of material that is being shed by the star which is heating up and then spiraling back into this turbulent wake," said astronomer Christopher Martin of California Institute of Technology, one of the researchers in the study published in the journal Nature.
Mira is a so-called "red giant" star near the end of its life. Astronomers believe our sun will become a similar red giant in 4 to 5 billion years, but they doubt it will develop such a tail because it is not moving through space as quickly.
'PHOENIX-LIKE REVIVALS'
"It's giving us this fantastic insight into the death processes of stars and their renewals -- their phoenix-like revivals as their ashes get cycled backed into the next generation of stars," added Michael Shara of the American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University in New York.
Shara said he expects that as this telescope continues mapping the cosmos in ultraviolet light for the first time, other similar stars may be discovered. "There must be lots more of these things," Shara said.
NASA images show the tail as a glowing light-blue stream of material including oxygen, carbon and nitrogen.
This material has been blown off Mira gradually over time -- the oldest was released roughly 30,000 years ago as part of a long stellar death process -- and is enough to form at least 3,000 future Earth-sized planets, the scientists said.
The astronomers were surprised to find this unique feature in Mira, a well-known star studied since the 16th century. Mira (pronounced MY-rah) stems from the Latin word for "wonderful."
Despite having about the same mass as the sun, Mira has swollen up to over 400 times the size of the sun, meaning the force of gravity is having a hard time holding it together, Seibert said.
The tail stretching 13 light-years is thousands of times the length of our solar system. The nearest star to Earth, called Proxima Centauri, is located 4 light-years away.
While this star looks like a comet, stars and comets are quite different celestial bodies. Comets in our solar system are relatively small objects made up of rock, dust and ice trailed by a tail of gas and dust.
Unlike our solitary sun, Mira is a so-called binary star traveling through space orbiting a companion believed to be the burnt-out, dead core of a star, known as a white dwarf.
Scientists think Mira in time will eject all its gas, leaving a colorful shell known as a planetary nebula that also gradually will fade leaving behind a white dwarf.
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea.
That's nothing compared to Mr. M after a bowl of chili.
Industrial Light and Magic, Marin, Ca can do all that and more in a warehouse using CGI.
You have to watch that Berthold Radiation coming from Omicron Ceti 3.
(Star Trek Reference...Mira is Omicron Ceti)
“The further along in college and post graduate education the more I became convinced of the fact that we are unique....because it makes no sense for us to exist by randomness.”
Really?
So far it appears as if life on Earth is “unique”....but considering the % of the universe we have explored, I’d prefer to think that the jury is still out on that point.
I always thought that it was odd that some people believe that we (humans on earth) are at the top of the galactic food chain......that we’re the pinnacle.
If nothing else... that a waste of real estate (the rest of the universe).
Whatever that means, I beleive you.
“If nothing else... that a waste of real estate (the rest of the universe).”
For it to be a waste of course would have to recognize “purpose” which, of course would mean at the very minimum someone directing everything and probably creating everything.
Damned SUVs!!!
"A long time ago
in a galaxy far, far away"
At the time when it came out, it helped me realize how young our part of the universe is.
Cosmically, we live somewhere up in Northern Canada....it's no wonder we never see anybody else!
Location. Location. Location.
Cordially,
And why is the trail curved like some Disney concept of a shooting star?
Wow, possible planting of new stars. I will fire up the cosmic John Deere cultivator as soon as I get the flux capacitor fixed!
It's the necromonger armada!
Thanks for posting this. B4L8r
DAMN BUSH TAX CUTS!! Even stars light years away are falling apart!
lofl
Galactic Warming! Calling Algore.....
I always thought that it was odd that some people believe that we (humans on earth) are at the top of the galactic food chain......that we’re the pinnacle.
If nothing else... that a waste of real estate (the rest of the universe).
I don't think of myself as the top of any "food" chain.....just a very,very, teeny, tiny, speck...
That's what amazes me. If you've got some science background think about the enormity of space...or even the size of our sun with the reactions going on to send heat and light out into the cosmos... then think of the inner workings of the inner ear. The way small hair follicles help to transmit the movement of fluids in 3 dimensions to you child's brain while she does a somersault...
Or the randomness of immense collections of empty space going on for distances that can't even be imagined, while our little planet has a temperature range that at it's coldest and hottest is very very moderate in galactic terms while allowing water to exist in ice, vapor and liquid form....
That the liquid is found in most living organisms, is a great polar solvent and with the help of a chain of events allows light to be converted from carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen to glucose and proteins......That those combinations of proteins can realign themselves to replicate and carry on the production of hormones, hair, eyes, ears, brain.....and on top of that to have self realization....
I'm amazed by it all.
Don't you think it's just "odd" that we even exist? That's why I started my path towards being a Christian.
I'm all the way to being a really crappy one now.... but I'm trying....and from what I can gather, that's a start.
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