What would happen if a galaxy...

hey guys

What would happen if a galaxy crossed its course with the plasma jet of a massive dying star? I hear these jets can reach thousands of light-years into space but how much "power" do they carry and to what distance wound they cause interference? Is it frequent?
Just curious... I know there are much more imminent and saddly less exotic threats

thanks

a reply to: Logiciel

I imagine any planetary life exposed to such jet, or in its cone would be exposed to some nasty radiation.

a reply to: Logiciel

Do you mean a gamma ray burst? I think if the cone hit us we wouldn't be alive nor much else for long.
EDIT: I really should read more posts because I'm just repeating the above lol..so so tired

a reply to: Logiciel
Compared to a galaxy even a massive star would just be a speck of light in the billions of stars that make up that galaxy, I think the effect on the galaxy itself would be unnoticeable!
I never heard of stars shooting plasma jets, I searched and couldn't find anything on that, did you mean Gamma-ray bursts?

a reply to: WhiteWine

I was watching this and my questioning arised there:

future space trvel technology

a reply to: Logiciel

Well our sun is not that unique (All stars are really one of a kind though) and it outputs solar wind and has a massive electro magnetic shell reaching far into space like a protective barrier almost like our own magnetosphere but vastly larger so if the star was far enough away we would likely not notice but this may interest you,.
www.bbc.co.uk...
www.slate.com...
It is possible some mass extinctions may have been caused by these periodic event's and indeed it makes you realize just how much more of a miracle our very existance really is.

Other than that even the most massive star is small in comparison to a galaxy so it's effect would be negligable on the overall mass of stars in the galaxy but potentially devastating to any near by stars, here is one, what happens in a binary star system when one star goes nova to the other star if it is within planetary distance.

Compare the size of a galaxy with the size of a star. A star is a single grain of sand at a beach. Do you really think a grain of sand, powerful though it may be, is going to make much of an impact on the beach?

originally posted by: LABTECH767
a reply to: Logiciel

Well our sun is not that unique

Being pedantic here, if you consider that it is in the top 5% of all stars by numbers for its size and luminosity, it isn't exactly 'normal'.

It is a single star - no gravitational binding to other stars... this is about a 50:50 thing
It has high atmospheric metallicity compared to others around it.
It is White hot as opposed to red like the rest of the 95%

Basically, you need to slap anyone who does the whole "Oh the sun isnt special" because it isn't exactly 'Mr normal" either.


A high energy jet or radio burst? it would likely not do all that much once you get out at that kind of distance scale the energy density will be fairly low. More concerning would be a gamma ray burst or a supernova going off next door. This would give you a nice radiation bake. the energy release can be enormous though as pointed out. Feeding matter into a black hole in terms of heating and generation of high intensity radiation is one of the most efficient methods of doing such a thing. But the 1/r^2 law here is a cruel mistress.

Those jets are traveling close to the speed of light, at least over 90%. From the viewpoint of an orbit of a star, you would see a bright glowing cloud of light speeding towards you from your nearest neighboring stars.

On the surface of a planet, it would have the same effect as a solar flare. There is some evidence that Earth was hit by a gamma ray burst about 12,500 years ago.

ie.lbl.gov...

I could only imagine what it would be like on the surface of an Earth-like planet. The atmosphere would glow brilliantly at night. Anything metal would spark like a Carrington event.