'Death Star' Aimed at Earth

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.'"

Not my problem

[dasbush]

Further research would be required to determine if we are exactly in line with the axis of the system - but even if we are, we probably still have hundreds of thousands of years to come up with a solution, said Tuthill.

I'll just leave this little problem to my great(x1428) grandchildren to deal with.

Re:OH NOES

[kemenaran]

The problem is that we see the star as it was 6500 years ago. As far as we know, it could have already exploded, and a good bunch of gamma rays be coming to us right now. So you were right, we're doomed ^^

Re:Thanks Global Warming

[ajs]

If these rays cool the planet, and Global Warming warms the planet, we should stay a nice luke-warm and be fine, right?

You're mis-reading the quote. The event cooled the planet, not the rays. Likely that was a result of secondary effects. For example, killing 60% of living things would result in lots of barren land which would produce large amounts of dust. That may have been what produced the cooling effect.

Re:Episode of Sliders

[phillymjs]

The science on that episode (and most later episodes) was like the computer terminology thrown around in Hackers-- if you knew how wrong it was, it was almost painful to watch/hear. IIRC, the pulsars looked like empty toilet paper rolls with light coming out of the ends. And they didn't just irradiate Earth and leave it physically intact but lifeless, they made it blow up. Ugh, I'm shaking my head in disgust at the mere memory of it.

That show started off great and is 100% responsible for me getting interested in the alternate-history genre. Unfortunately, after the creator left they just resorted to stealing movie plots and it got downright ridiculous and pathetic.

~Philly

Re:Hmm let's think about this a sec...

[Anonymous Coward]

It will take another 8,000 years for a gamma blast to get to us. Something tells me were out of harms way.


You are assuming that the blast didn't occur 8000 years ago.

Let's hope

[Anonymous Coward]

It happens at exactly the moment we're in the "shadow" of Jupiter. That should take a heafty nibble out of the energy, but it's entirely possible that the three points will never line up... but if they did and Earth were spared, it would be the greatest coincidence of all time.

Cosmically, the life here on Earth is in a very dangerous existance. What I find facinating is that for all intents and purposes, Earth is the human universe (as it's the only place we KNOW life can and does exist), yet the average human doesn't really care. When we run out of fossil fuels, we'll likely end up stuck on Earth, as we won't be able to generate enough energy fast enough to get off the planet. That's kind of sad, because even now humanity has the knowledge to live somewhere, somehow, until the end of all things. We just need to TRY.

For my part, I'll see what I can do in my life time to help people understand that our decendants don't need to be standing here saying, "Well... shit!" as they observe the end of Earth and all life in the known universe. We're adapable, resilient, capable, and driven and we absolutely can out live our solar system if we try.

Re:OH NOES

[DrgnDancer]

And faster than light communications, otherwise the message will reach us at eh same time as the radiation.

Re:lies, Lies, LIES!!!

[shafty023]

Time dilation is a strange thing. To the photons the travel is instantaneous. Yet for all other objects we have to "catch" up with them which in this case would be 6,500 yrs in the future. Of course for us to visit that location 6,500 light yrs away at our barbaric speeds it'd be 5 x 10^18 yrs till we got there. If photons have no understanding of time, and if the photons have already reached every point in space as soon as they are discharged, then why does it still take time for us to see them far away? Some things will never make sense.

Re:Thanks guys

[Mister Whirly]

You are correct, but as the light we are seeing from the star right now also traveled the same distance. It could have shot out a gamma ray 7,999 years ago and we could be toast within the year. I am no scientist either, but I figure both light waves would travel at the same speed.

Re:I asked GOD

[Anonymous Coward]

If you believe that everything contradicting a literal interpretation of the Bible is a lie, you're missing even more.

Re:Thanks guys

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is science the only profession where if you're not curing cancer or feeding the poor, you're wasting your time? What have you done to save the Earth today, asshole?

Re:Thanks guys

[Metasquares]

The first rule of research is that more research is always needed. You don't see too many papers that end with "Yep, that's everything" :)

Re:Thanks guys

[James McGuigan]

5) The political answer, it would cost too much, so lets forget about it and allow future generations figure something out

Re:Atmosphere? What atmosphere?

[Anonymous Coward]

That is but one possibility for why Mars does not have an atmosphere. It's quite possible that Mars DID lose it's atmosphere due to solar winds stripping it off for lack of a magnetic field. Other possibilities include large asteroid impacts, reverse greenhouse effect (aka runaway refrigerator), or a combination of all of the above.

Anyway, regarding the loss of an atmosphere due to low gravity, consider that Saturn's moon Titan is much smaller than Mars, yet has a thicker atmosphere. This leads me to believe that there were other factors involved in why Mars lost it's atmosphere, and gravity isn't on the top of the list.

Re:Thanks guys

[JordanH]

You guys must've posted at exactly the same time!

You don't know that. Some of the posters might have been relatively further away and it just took the message longer to get to you, but they might have posted at earlier.

Or, maybe that's the point...

Re:With the risk of sounding stupid...

[Captain Nitpick]

gamma rays travel in the speed of light right? If the event happened X light years from us, X years in the past, aren't we cooked before we know it happened? Only when the burst energy reaches earth - that's the moment we know it happens.

Yep.

However, we might be able to spot changes in a star leading up to the actual burst. If we knew what to look for.

Re:I asked GOD

[Z34107]

If you believe that everything contradicting a literal interpretation of the Bible is a lie, you're missing even more.

That's exactly the point I was trying to make. They're creation stories, not docu-dramas. Ask, "what insight is the author of this text trying to convey?" not "How can I rationalize a story to fit a literal history I want to believe in."