21000 light years maybe a long way away but if that thing explodes- who knows what kind of chaos it can send and how fast it can come at us...especially if we're rotating closer and closer to it...It sounds dangerous to me but theres nothing we'll be able to do about it...somethings are just meant to be.

Would anyone really be surprised if more catastrophes happened??? Look at recent events...I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Originally posted by PimpyMcgibbins
21000 light years maybe a long way away but if that thing explodes- who knows what kind of chaos it can send and how fast it can come at us...especially if we're rotating closer and closer to it...It sounds dangerous to me but theres nothing we'll be able to do about it...somethings are just meant to be.

Would anyone really be surprised if more catastrophes happened??? Look at recent events...I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Lol

If this thing were to explode it would take over 21,000 years to get here

Extremely unplausible

Just so people do not get confused.

The diagram:

The diagram is only there to show a comparison between the orbits of Earth and the pulsar.

It is an artist impression. To be clear, this is does not represent reality.

The distance:

21,000 light years is, as others have posted, is a very, very massive distance from The Sun.

For example:

A type 1A supernova will effect the earth if it is within 500 light years.

A type 2 supernova will effect the earth if it is within 26 light years

This pulsar is significantly further away than even the danger zones of these cataclysmic events.

I can find no evidence that this pulsar can effect Earth's biosphere in any way.

Does the OP has some evidence???

No, it is not and will not bother anything on earth period.

Light travels at 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers per year (light year)
So the binary system in question is 21,000 light years away

9,500,000,000,000 X 21,000 = 199,500,000,000,000,000 kilometers away

Our sun is roughly 150,000,000 kilometers away from earth or 93 million miles.

The closest star to our sun is proxima Centauri at 4.24 light years away or about 40,000,000,000,000 kilometers away.(the light left this star 4years and months ago when you see it)

The Crab supernova remnant is about 4,000 light-years away.(star explosion that was seen by some Chinese astronomers [they could see it in broad daylight] a little over 1000 years ago, so that means that the star blew up 4,000 years before they even saw it)

The Milky Way Galaxy is about 150,000 light-years across.(our galaxy)

The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.3 million light-years away.(our closest neighboring galaxy)

The size and distances of the universe are truly hard for our minds to grasp. Like the previous poster said,
It took 21,000 years for the light (and radio waves) from this binary system to get here!

It could have exploded 11,000 years ago, and we wont know about it for another 10,000 years! Get it?

I really hope that astronomy has interested you, because the really cool thing about this neutron star is, how fast it is spinning at over 100 times PER SECOND.

Now go worry about something that could really save lives, like the battery in your smoke alarm. You have one, right?

Peace

That is just a picture. Not the actual objects.

The picture is not to scale. 21,000 light years is 21,000 light years.
The earth does not move a single one of those light years in a year.
This is because the earth does not move anywhere near the speed of light.

So the closest we come to it is 21,000 light years.

To put that into perspective, If you travel at the speed of light, it will take you 21,000 years to reach the pulsar from Earth.

The nearest star other than the sun is 4.2 light years away. You will notice the absence of anyone getting a tan lying under that star.

Reading thread like these always put a smile on my face.

Im far for a Nibiru beliver but what I heard about this crap is that it'S a rogue planet...sometime it's a neutron star...But this article talk about a fast spining pulsar.Nowhere it say that it's clsoe to earth or this is going to hit us in 2012

This pulsar is freaking 21 000 light years from here!!!
The Milky Way has a diameter of 100 000 light years so it's nowhere close.

That picture is clearly not drawn to scale. And uh.... Yeah, pretty neat though I guess.

I think the distance was pretty well explained. 21,000 light years is the distance light travels in 21,000 years here on Earth. So if that pulsar exploded with tremendous force and was powerful enough to affect life on the Earth and it did it 20,996 years ago, it might have an impact here in 4 years in 2012 when the light from that explosion reaches us. If it didn't explode exactly 20,996 years ago, I don't think anyone needs to worry about it. However maybe another one we haven't found exploded closer to us and we just don't see it yet. That's what you need to worry about if you really want to worry about something you have no power over.

Originally posted by orionthehunter
I think the distance was pretty well explained. 21,000 light years is the distance light travels in 21,000 years here on Earth. So if that pulsar exploded with tremendous force and was powerful enough to affect life on the Earth and it did it 20,996 years ago, it might have an impact here in 4 years in 2012 when the light from that explosion reaches us. If it didn't explode exactly 20,996 years ago, I don't think anyone needs to worry about it. However maybe another one we haven't found exploded closer to us and we just don't see it yet. That's what you need to worry about if you really want to worry about something you have no power over.

Even if it did Explode 20,996 years ago and reached us in four years it would have no effect on us. The distance is so large and space is so vast that the radiation would diffuse and spread in a manner that would render it harmless to us. But this is besides the point because I think there is a lack of understanding of stellar evolution here. A pulsar is the remnant of an exploded star (Supernova). Instead of exploding again (which would make no physicial sense) it slowly loses energy, stops spinning and becomes a regular neutron star.

[edit on 19-5-2008 by RusytyShackleford]

[edit on 19-5-2008 by RusytyShackleford]

Wow so many who are oblivious to the meaning of 21,000 light years...

I got one question. How come the world didn't have an end when PX came around last time? Or the surely multiple times it's come around every 3600 years? I guess life is just that bad to the bone to recover, huh. You know, there may be a PX. It just might come around every 3600 years. But it damn sure hasn't destroyed this planet thus far, and I doubt it will the next trip whenever it comes around. IF it even exists which I doubt seeing that the entire PX basis regards what just one man says he can translate, which I find amusing that one man in the world has been able to "translate" ancient stones and people take his word as gospel.

To have a secondary view though albeit less serious and more for the entertainment value, if this planet exists, or rogue star or whatever you want to believe in, and it's come around and caused chaos here on earth multiple of times or perhaps countless number of times, obviously it hasn't sent earth to the pits of hell yet and probably never will. The earth survived, the world didn't end, life went on. So, why so much sweat over the bloody thing? Oh, I know why. Fear mongers pushing videos and books scaring everyone to death to make money, and then they have their own personal fans who go a step further and like to make their websites and youtube videos with fancy pictures and animations showing the doom that awaits us. Yeah..

Originally posted by botiemaster
Wow so many who are oblivious to the meaning of 21,000 light years...

I got one question. How come the world didn't have an end when PX came around last time? Or the surely multiple times it's come around every 3600 years? I guess life is just that bad to the bone to recover, huh. You know, there may be a PX. It just might come around every 3600 years. But it damn sure hasn't destroyed this planet thus far, and I doubt it will the next trip whenever it comes around. IF it even exists which I doubt seeing that the entire PX basis regards what just one man says he can translate, which I find amusing that one man in the world has been able to "translate" ancient stones and people take his word as gospel.

To have a secondary view though albeit less serious and more for the entertainment value, if this planet exists, or rogue star or whatever you want to believe in, and it's come around and caused chaos here on earth multiple of times or perhaps countless number of times, obviously it hasn't sent earth to the pits of hell yet and probably never will. The earth survived, the world didn't end, life went on. So, why so much sweat over the bloody thing? Oh, I know why. Fear mongers pushing videos and books scaring everyone to death to make money, and then they have their own personal fans who go a step further and like to make their websites and youtube videos with fancy pictures and animations showing the doom that awaits us. Yeah..

I think you have a point here. I have been an ametuer astronomer for years now and this is my first time hearing about "Planet X," at least in this context ( I say in this context because there are number of astronomers who feel that there are greater than Pluto sized objects in the Kuiper Belt which, by current IAU standards, could be defined as a planet (See Eris). I think if people read and educated themselves about the formation of our solar system a lot of this paranoia would be alleviated.

the picture is very deceiving and makes it look much closer than it is. The entire milky way galaxy(our galaxy) is 100,000 light years wide. 20,000 light years is 1/5 of the diameter OF THE WHOLE MILKY WAY GALAXY. This length is way to large to comprehend and to far to have any impact on us whatsoever and lets say it is drifting towards us there is no way it would get here by 2012. unless it travels faster than the speed of light: which is impossible.