space hates us

Australian astronomers have been studying an intergalactic assassin poised to wipe out life on Earth.  Maybe.  Observations indicate that cosmological curiosity WR104 may be a killer - and we might be the victim.

The pretty pinwheel that makes the system so distinctive is now know to be a combination of two stars - a blue star orbiting the Wolf-Rayet 104.  Note that the "Wolf-Rayet" name is the astronomical equivalent of a beeping red LCD countdown reading "0:01" - it\'s a swollen star getting ready for final supernova detonation.  At the moment its fusion reactions are blasting its own photosphere off into space, where the blue companion orbits and illuminates the material, creating a seriously impressive spiral over twice the size of our solar system.

We have a perfect view of this pinwheel pattern, since the spiral is at right angles to us, in the same way a man being held at gunpoint has a perfect view of the little hole the bullets come out of.  And the gun is over twenty-five times the size of the sun.  When a binary system collapses into a black hole, which astronomers call \'coalescence\' (a euphemism which makes \'heated debate\' a valid description of World War II), it can release a gigantic burst of gamma rays.  Gamma rays are the ultimate high energy electromagnetic radiation, and while the burst lasts less than two minutes it can contain more energy than the entire mass of the sun converted into energy by E = m c^2.  You\'ll notice that the mass of the sun and the speed of light, c, are extremely large numbers.

On the upside we\'ll never see it coming.  The EM-burst travels the speed of light so the only warning we\'d have is dying - which most people will accept is a little too late.  The dinosaurs certainly did (some scientists believe historical mass extinctions were caused by similar intergalactic "life reset button" gamma bursts).  Even better, this Earthicidal explosion may have already happened with the lethal radiation already speeding its way right at us.  On the other hand, the big boom might not happen for hundreds of thousands of years - and might do so without a peep of gamma radiation.

The combination of science and philosophy is a challenging field that many don\'t bother with, but this is a strong motivation to start.  If you could die tomorrow, how would you like to live today?

http://digg.com/d1o7oN

Its probably just Jesus.

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

i\'m tired of all this end of the world shit.. 2012  blah blah blah.

If it happens, it happens.  Look up end of the world dates.. There\'s been shit loads of them. None have happened. Its just another money making fear campain to me.

The post wasn\'t intended as an end of the world post. The dude who wrote that article fucked it up on that last sentence.

I don\'t really see this one as the end of the world...or at least the end of my world. This is still thousands of years away even if it already is moving towards us.

I look at it the same way they already know that one day our sun will die out and the earth will become cold and lifeless, or it\'ll grow much bigger before exploding and engulfing us in the supernova (which is much more badass imo).  I just find it interesting the way nature works, and i\'m a sucker for astronomy stuff.

Just an interesting article about something happening out in space to me.

As for that 2012 stuff. That shit is retarded, as was Y2K, and anything to do with Nostradamus or any of that junk.

Our entire history of space exploration is only about 50 years old.  We only need a couple hundred more years to become interstellar.  After that we can spread our seed among other star systems, and cosmic disasters like this won\'t be as much a threat to our species.
 
I think the odds are with us, and we\'re doing OK.

There are so many variables to this...

How far away is the star? And I\'m assuming the energy will be dispersed in all directions, so to think a massive amount of energy will hit the earth is wrong. The energy will spread exponentially with distance. And think about all the other things that could get in the way of the energy, such as the asteroid belt, moon, other planets etc.

Interesting read though

[clips]

I think humans will destroy themselves waaay before any of these celestial entities become a major threat. That said, ive always liked astronomy and in the 50 or so years as core has mentioned, i think we\'ve accomplished alot, at least from a technical standpoint. I\'m still verily impressed in how we can send an unmanned space vehicle to mars that takes high quality pictures of the landscape and sends them back to earth.