'Death Star' Aimed at Earth 400
An anonymous reader writes "A spectacular, rotating binary star system is a ticking time bomb, ready to throw out a searing beam of high-energy gamma rays that could lead to a major extinction event — and Earth may be right in the line of fire. Australian science magazine Cosmos Magazine reports: 'Though the risk may be remote, there is evidence that gamma ray bursts have swept over the planet at various points in Earth's history with a devastating effect on life. 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.'"
Thanks guys (Score:5, Informative)
Episode of Sliders (Score:2, Informative)
Good show, had some hot geeky chicks on it for awhile.
Re:Well guys.. (Score:2, Informative)
It's OK! Barack Obama will know what to do! If this thing can just... hold... off... until... next... year.
Maybe if we just planned an unconditional sit-down with the people running that star, they'd like us again.
The Bad Astronomer has covered this on his blog. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Thanks guys (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Atmosphere? What atmosphere? (Score:5, Informative)
The average period between pole flips is about 250,000 years, so that will give you a pretty good idea of how often it happens, and how unlikely it is that atmospheric loss follows. For the curious, it's been about 800,000 years since the last flip, so we're due one.
Earth cooked, news at 11... (Score:5, Informative)
If a GRB hits us in the next 10 years, the Earth is cooked and we're screwed. Game over.
If a GRB hits us in the next 100 years, the Earth is cooked, and although I'm gone, life on Earth is still screwed. Game over.
If a GRB hits us in the next 1000 years, the Earth is still cooked, I'm long gone as are the vast majority of my descendants, but maybe mankind (assuming we live that long) will have found the means to leave the planet and preserve itself. However, life on Earth is still screwed. Game over.
Ditto for 10k years, 100k, etc. Basically, there's very little we can do to save the Earth, and next to nothing we can do collectively to save ourselves, except for a few lucky individuals. Thus, the long term goal shouldn't be figuring out how to protect the Earth, but rather we should be figuring out how to preserve our legacy. Fighting against Mother Nature has proven time and time again to be futile.
Re:Well guys.. (Score:3, Informative)
I suppose it's possible you haven't seen the fine documentary, Mars Attacks. Well you should, mister.
Re:lies, Lies, LIES!!! (Score:2, Informative)
Subtle point, but interesting, thinking about it.
Re:I asked GOD (Score:2, Informative)
Whip out your concordance. The Hebrew word for "day" used in Genesis isn't meant to be metaphorical; it's a literal, 24-hour period of time.
If you assume that everything in the Bible is no deeper than a convoluted historical document, you're missing a lot.
Re:lies, Lies, LIES!!! (Score:1, Informative)
I wouldn't worry overmuch (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Impossible (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I asked GOD (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Thanks guys (Score:5, Informative)
The only thing we can do is rely on predictions based on our existing knowledge of physics that a light-speed event will soon begin, or continue. But we will never be able to know for certain that it's happened until it's upon us. By analogy, we know the sun will continue shining its light at us because we know that even in the worst case scenario, a collapse of its internal fusion reactions would take millions of years and we could see signs that such an event was happening, such as seeing that its hydrogen fuel supplies were about to run out. However, if there is some previously unknown method of collapse that is instantaneous and the sun looked entirely normal until it happened, then it would be entirely possible that the sun has already shut down and in 1 to 8 minutes we are about to realize that today is definitely not a good day.
Re:I asked GOD (Score:3, Informative)
Re:OH NOES (Score:5, Informative)