Potentially Lethal Gamma Ray Could Hit Earth

Fox News ^

[Carriage Hill]

“Cop tires, cop engine, cop transmission; we’re on a mission from God.”

[txrefugee]

We’re all gonna die......really.

[spetznaz]

8,000 miles away. Drat! I was just going to go buy an icecream!

Seriously though, gamma ray bursts are one of the things that could easily take us out. One of the largest mass extinctions on Earth (the Ordovician extinction) is believed to have been caused by a gamma ray burst.

The thing is, if it happened there is really nothing we can do about it. Additionally, what you said is very true. Any light we see took time to get to us. For instance, our view of the Sun is 8 minutes old. The star light we see is at least 4 years old (the closest star is Proxima Centauri, which is just over 4 light years away), and a lot of the light we see in the night sky took thousands of years to arrive (and thus is showing something that was occurring a long long time ago). Thus, this star could have gone super nova 8,000 years ago and, as you said, we would only be finding out now.

[dfwgator]

Oh Noes!

[Moonman62]

- 8,000 years, now changed to light years.

Revive the Shuttle and we can still get there.

[jpsb]

If you go to the article it says 8,000 light years away. Either they corrected the error or sarge introduced the error when posting.

Wiki says the inclination is 16% and newer observations indicate 30% so the danger to Earth is little(16%) or none (30%). Also 8,000 light years is IIRC about 6,000 light years to many to be a serious threat to life on Earth.

[katana]

The article now states "light years" so either they corrected it or whoever excerpted the article was having a bit of fun.

Eight thousand light years is actually fairly close in astronomical terms and if the object did go super nova 8 thousand years ago I would think we are at least in for an interesting light show. The Crab Nebula is the result of a super nova 6,500 light years away and it made quite an impression on observers when its light reached earth around 1054 AD.

[SMARTY]

[COBOL2Java]

We might experience some slight metabolic changes...

[Salamander]

Forget us...what about the effect on all the Man-in-the Moon marigolds?!?

[ArcadeQuarters]

Yeah, it looks like it’s fixed in the original now.

[glyptol]

8,000 miles? How many parsecs is that?

[MichaelCorleone]

Obviously the answer is more taxes to the UN.

Always remember that all global problems, real or perceived, require global solutions...

[tumblindice]

Thems is zombie kick-start rays my goodness gracious me oh my!

[rwoodward]

Sounds pretty series!

[SubMareener]

Relax! It will miss us by a mile or so! From a more complete article: http://news.discovery.com/space/history-of-space/gamma-ray-wolf-rayet.htm

Ian O'Neill: Hi Grant!
Grant Hill: Aloha Ian

. . . . .

Ian: I actually wanted to ask about the binary partner too, was it the interacting stellar winds that helped you to deduce that WR 104 was tilted away from us? In fact, can the pinwheel spiral of WR 104 even be produced without a binary partner?

Grant: Answering the second question first: I'm not aware of any explanation for the pinwheel spiral that does not involve colliding winds from two binary partners.

Regarding the orientation of the orbit of WR 104... looking at the images, it is very hard to believe the orbit is not face on. The thing really does look like it is pointed right at us.

Having said that though, there are several reasons why I am not so sure. First, I have been able to measure velocities for both the WR star and its companion. With those velocities I can calculate the orbit and by extension say something about the orbital inclination if I assume reasonable masses for the stars. Doing that implies the inclination is at least 30 or 40 degrees.

I can also use some computer code I have written to model the changing shape of that carbon line. That modeling includes the orbital inclination. I am working hard right now trying to find the smallest inclination which results in reasonable model fits. So far the lowest I can get it is around 30 or 35 degrees.

Finally, I think that about a half a dozen of these spiral pinwheels have now been imaged. If I recall correctly, all but one of them look to the eye as if they are nearly face on. Statistically that raises a red flag to me.

Having said all that... WR 104 is definitely the best observed of these things and the images sure look like it is pointed right at us.

[kidd]

Fox News is behind the times on this one.

http://www.universetoday.com/23342/wr-104-wont-kill-us-after-all/

The rotational pole (the “gun barrel” of the gamma ray burst) is not pointed at Earth.

[dangus]

8,000 miles away? Once again, the neo-conservatives at Fox News are covering up for the Israelis! </leftist idiot reading pseudo-con idiots>

[lefty-lie-spy]

That is hilarious! I checked the article, and they fixed it. It must have been liberal dipshit intern day at the editor’s desk today.

[fruser1]

Unfortunately, many folks have this math problem w/units.

And most of them are working politicians, regulators, and reporters, which is why trillions in debt doesn’t mean much to them.

Trillion, billion, million, what’s the diff right?