Oh dear... The end of life as we know it due nearby star system?

Could this be humanity looking down the barrel of a galactic gun??



According to this article the above is a binary star system a mere 8,000 light years away, these two stars are locked in a fatal dance.

One member of the pair is a highly unstable star known as a Wolf-Rayet, thought to be the final stage of stellar evolution to precede a cataclysmic supernova explosion.

When this star goes supernova we could very well be in the line of fire!

A 2005 study showed that a gamma-ray burst originating within 6,500 light-years of Earth could be enough to strip away the ozone layer and cause a mass extinction. Researchers led by Adrian Melott at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, U.S., suggest that such an event may have been responsible for a mass extinction 443 million years ago, in the late Ordovician period, which wiped out 60 per cent of life and cooled the planet.

What concerns me more (but is not mentioned in that particular article) is the fact that this is 8,000 light years away - not only close enough to do damage, far enough away as to allow for the possibility that the deadly event has already taken place! apparently it has been studied over an 8 year period - meaning that if it went, oh I don't know, if it went 7,992 years ago, we would know about it tomorrow - and have a little more than 8 years to issue tin balaclava's to the population.

Don't say you weren't warned

No way! I want to meet ET before I get annihilated by a supernova!

Maybe the aliens are kidnapping us one by one to decide which ones they want to save before the disaster hits.

Let me help put this in perspective.

During WWII, when there was real danger in the world, people did not worry about such things.

Though there are instabilities, be glad that you can find such unlikely and improbable catastrophes about which to concern yourself, because it means that you are living in a time of relative peace and prosperity.

Survey yourself. Do you have a toothache? Do you have a life threatening disease? Any of your loved ones? If not, then feel free to ruminate about the threat of a supernova 8,000 ly from you, because so far, you've lived a charmed life. Tomorrow go out and live with gusto.




[edit on 5-3-2008 by Badge01]

reply to post by Badge01


Maybe I wanna go out in a supernova! Got to be more interesting than bothering with a pension plan and doing everything so as to live right through to the wheel chair and processed food

Any who... there is evidence that says these things have swept the Earth in the past - there is no evidence of global nuclear war to of done the same (as yet)...

So long as it's dramatic I don't really care about the details of my demise - I will be well pissed if it turns out to be bird flu or lung cancer *lights unfiltered roll up*

Sorry, but this is funny. ....First of all, scientists aren't even sure what gamma ray bursts originate from. Conjuring this type of situation is nothing short of an assumption.

Secondly, if gamma ray bursts were caused by supernovae, there would still be very little chance of this one being directed at us. We know that gamma ray bursts are quite frequent, however; we only observe a few that are happening out of the many due to the directional nature of them. So, statiscally speaking, it is very improbable.

Astronomers have the tendency to conjure up theories and imaginary things in space to explain observations that are unexplainable by current models, while ignoring laws of physics. This can be attributed to the overwhelming misunderstanding of the electrical nature of the universe and to the reliance of mathematical based, gravity influenced models.

-Dev

Originally posted by Now_Then
meaning that if it went, oh I don't know, if it went 7,992 years ago, we would know about it tomorrow - and have a little more than 8 years to issue tin balaclava's to the population.

I think you are close. I went off 7996 years ago. You forgot to allow for yet another 2012 phenominon
That would make it perfectly timed to wipe out planet X before it hits us and presto...we are saved

A clarification...
Gamma 2 Velorum is approximately 840 ly away.

Relax guys! Don't panic just yet...

Firstly we ain't sure whether the barrel is pointed at us as as we don't yet know if the Earth is precisely on WR104's axis.

Secondly, it's going to be hundreds of thousands of years before it blows, so there's plenty of time left before you think of packing your suitcases to head for the hills!!

Cheers!

yeah, i have to say i'm not really that concerned. it is highly unlikely that the burst will be in our direction.

right now i am more worried about the number of knife happy neds (idiot in a tracksuit) who roam the streets, perpetuating mindless violence.

Originally posted by VIKINGANT
I think you are close. I went off 7996 years ago. You forgot to allow for yet another 2012 phenominon

That would make it perfectly timed to wipe out planet X before it hits us and presto...we are saved

Ahhh Whata Mistaka To Makea!!

It's all so clear now

Originally posted by VIKINGANT
I think you are close. I went off 7996 years ago. You forgot to allow for yet another 2012 phenominon

That would make it perfectly timed to wipe out planet X before it hits us and presto...we are saved

HUSH!!! Don't go and give people any ideas! We have enough 2012ers out there as it is! it wants to make me--->

Supernovas and gamma ray bursts are different phenomena which are different yet from two stars colliding. 8k light years would not be considered a nearby system, there are a myriad of stars that are much closer.

A supernova expels energy omnidirectional and a GRB is focused in polar directions. A GRB is the observed energy that escapes from a star that is being consumed by a black hole. A huge amount of energy shoots out the poles on the rotating axis of the black hole, being inline with this would be bad but very unlikely.

I think you have far better chances of dying in a nursing home an old man with Alzheimers I'm sorry to say.