Hum Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Earth could be in for a neighborhood dispute with a death star, according to an Australian astronomer. A spectacular rotating pinwheel system just down the astronomical road from Earth ? 8,000 light years away ? includes an unstable Wolf-Rayet star that could explode. Eight years ago, WR104 was discovered in the constellation Sagittarius by Sydney University astronomer Peter Tuthill. A Wolf-Rayet star is the last step on the way to a supernova ? the explosion of a star at the end of its life. Images from the Mauna Kea in Hawaii telescope show that every eight months the two stars at the centre of the pinwheel orbit each other, leaving a trail of hot gas, carbon and dust. "Viewed from Earth, the rotating tail appears to be laid out on the sky in an almost perfect spiral," Tuthill said. "It could only appear like that if we are looking nearly exactly down on the axis of the binary system." Tuthill and his team worry this box-seat view might put us in the firing line when the system finally explodes. "Sometimes, supernovae like the one that will one day destroy WR104 focus their energy into a narrow beam of very destructive gamma-ray radiation along the axis of the system," he warns. "If such a 'gamma-ray burst' happens, we really do not want Earth to be in the way." Even a short gamma-ray burst at supernova strength could zap away half the Earth's ozone layer, drastically increasing the amount of deadly space radiation that penetrates our atmosphere. One leading theory blames the Ordovician mass extinction of 443 million years ago on such an interstellar gamma-ray burst. There's no need to move planets just yet, however, because Tuthill is uncertain whether Earth is precisely on WR104's axis. "We probably have hundreds of thousands of years before it blows, so we have plenty of time to come up with some answers," he said. Tuthill's research is published in the latest edition oAstrophysical Journal.l. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primexx Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 scary ****, the universe is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guru Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 wow, this sounds lot closer than the red giant end of the world thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
»X« Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 Oh good, we got some time then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azusa Posted March 7, 2008 Share Posted March 7, 2008 We're going to need drills BIG DRILLS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 scary ****, the universe is Yes it is... i could go off into another tangent in futher agreement with you, but you know what im getting at :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted March 8, 2008 Veteran Share Posted March 8, 2008 That's no moon... It's a Wolf-Rayet star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.r.l. Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Earth could be in for a neighborhood dispute with a death star, according to an Australian astronomer.A spectacular rotating pinwheel system just down the astronomical road from Earth ??8,000 light years awayb> ? includes an unstable Wolf-Rayet star that could explode. Eight years ago, WR104 was discovered in the constellation Sagittarius by Sydney University astronomer Peter Tuthill. A Wolf-Rayet star is the last step on the way to a supernova ? the explosion of a star at the end of its life. Images from the Mauna Kea in Hawaii telescope show that every eight months the two stars at the centre of the pinwheel orbit each other, leaving a trail of hot gas, carbon and dust. "Viewed from Earth, the rotating tail appears to be laid out on the sky in an almost perfect spiral," Tuthill said. "It could only appear like that if we are looking nearly exactly down on the axis of the binary system." Tuthill and his team worry this box-seat view might put us in the firing line when the system finally explodes. "Sometimes, supernovae like the one that will one day destroy WR104 focus their energy into a narrow beam of very destructive gamma-ray radiation along the axis of the system," he warns. "If such a 'gamma-ray burst' happens, we really do not want Earth to be in the way." Even a short gamma-ray burst at supernova strength could zap away half the Earth's ozone layer, drastically increasing the amount of deadly space radiation that penetrates our atmosphere. One leading theory blames the Ordovician mass extinction of 443 million years ago on such an interstellar gamma-ray burst. There's no need to move planets just yet, however, because Tuthill is uncertain whether Earth is precisely on WR104's axis. "We probablyhundreds of thousandsds of years before it blows, so we have plenty of time to come up with some answers," he said. Tuthill's research is published in the latest edition oAstrophysical Journal.l. source[/q:alien:alien: immortal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osiris Posted March 8, 2008 Share Posted March 8, 2008 Damn fellow Aussie...should have been working on new beer technology instead of finding this cool - but depressing - news :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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