"Similar Event Within 100 Light Years of Earth Would Be Catastrophic" --Astronomers...

The Daily Galaxy ^ | 7/28/16

[LibWhacker]

Full title: "Similar Event Within 100 Light Years of Earth Would Be Catastrophic" --Astronomers Observe Explosion 20 Times Brighter Than All the Stars in the Milky Way

Anything that powerful has got to throw out some pretty powerful gravitational waves, so I'd keep my eye peeled for any news out of LIGO.

[TexasM1A]

Galactic Warming.

[Riley]

“If you walked outside and saw a person who was six feet tall, and then someone who was six thousand feet tall, you would notice,” says team member Todd Thompson of Ohio State University. “You begin to question whether this is even a person."

"Ho ho ho, Green Giant."

[MUDDOG]

some pretty powerful gravitational waves

It takes a lot of skill and courage unknown, to catch the last wave and ride it in alone.

[sagar]

Need mo tax money to fund these research. We need to know what could kill us 3 billion years from now. They could be just 80 light years away!

[RayChuang88]

I think one star astronomers have to worry about is Betelgeuse, about 649 light years from Earth. That star could be on the verge of a massive supernova explosion and when we finally see it, it could be hitting us with a massive dose of cosmic radiation that could have devastating effects of life on Earth (especially if the initial radiation we see is gamma rays).

[onedoug]

Most astronomers today believe that one of the plausible reasons we have yet to detect intelligent life in the universe is due to the deadly effects of local supernova explosions within 100 light years that wipe out all life in a given region of a galaxy.

Then "most astronomers" are nuts.

[ravenwolf]

If,if is a big word, i believe all it is is just speculating,
yet they will be teaching it in society as fact.

Just the same way we got into this environmental crap.

[Boogieman]

“Most astronomers today believe that one of the plausible reasons we have yet to detect intelligent life in the universe is due to the deadly effects of local supernova explosions within 100 light years that wipe out all life in a given region of a galaxy.”

Well, in a practically infinite universe, there must be some parts that escape supernova effects long enough for intelligent life to evolve, if that is what actually happens. If some parts must escape, in a universe of this size, even if only a tiny fraction escapes, we should still see intelligent life all over the place. So they’re going to need to come up with a much better excuse to explain the paradox.

[adaven]

Yup. That’s going to be one big firecracker!

[LS]

Which, by the time it reaches us, would make me, lessee, about 800 years old?

[Boogieman]

“especially if the initial radiation we see is gamma rays”

So we all turn into the Hulk. No biggie :)

[trisham]

Agreed.

[LibWhacker]

I thought that looked like some interesting poetry, so I had to look it up... Little did I know it comes from THE WORST SONG EVER, lol!

Incidentally, forget what I said about LIGO. Turns out, LIGO was just coming online when this happened and may have missed it.

[Vince Ferrer]

Most astronomers today believe that one of the plausible reasons we have yet to detect intelligent life in the universe is due to the deadly effects of local supernova explosions within 100 light years that wipe out all life in a given region of a galaxy.

This is one of the reasons why I am doubtful of life in other places. 90% of all stars are in more densly packed areas that are peridically sterilized by supernovas.

[NorthMountain]

(especially if the initial radiation we see is gamma rays).

Speed of light in vacuum is not a function of wavelength.

[MUDDOG]

I like so-called worst songs.

We Built This City!

[DungeonMaster]

Those giant numbers are why I started loving astronomy 43 years ago.

[noiseman]

I think the problem with that assumption is that because it takes light 649 years to travel from Betelgeuse to Earth, we are actually seeing that star as it was 649 years ago. For all we know, it could have already gone supernova and we wouldn’t know it until the light (and radiation) reached us, which could happen anytime.

[ShadowAce]

For most of 2016, astronomers have been viewing a ball of hot gas billions of light years away that is radiating the energy of hundreds of billions of suns.

OK. I can understand that

At its heart is an object a little larger than 10 miles across.

I call BS here. There is NO WAY they can see a 10-mile object from "billions of light years" away.