Ready to Explode: Inside Look at an Unstable Star (Eta Carinae)

Yahoo News ^ | 12/2/03 | Robert Roy Britt - Space.com

[EUPHORIC]

If it's 7500 light years away, doesn't that mean that it could have exploded 7400 years ago and my grandchildren will see the nova?

Yup!

Could also mean in ten minutes YOU could look outside and see everything much brighter then normal...

[BenLurkin]

Opera singer.

[X-FID]

I didn't realize that humans were expected to be extinct within 7,500 years.

We do have to plan for the future. When I wake up from my deep sleep, I best not have a gut, still have my hair, and one of these stars better blow up.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Even today it can be seen racing outward at one and a half million miles per hour (2.4 million kilometers per hour).

I thought light speed was was the fastest speed possible...?

Yeah, but the the speed of light is six hundred sixty nine million, six hundred thousand miles per hour.

[Dog Gone]

It's always been a weird sense of joy to me to look up at the stars and realize that what I see is history. For all we know, NONE of those stars exists today.

[Tacis]

No doubt that this terrible disaster, which will surely effect minorities and blacks more severely, could have been avoided had Bush signed the Kyoto Agreement!

[hosepipe]

[ Yes, but light travels at 186,282 Miles PER SECOND, so even though a million miles an hour sounds fast, that is NOTHING compared to the speed of light.]<p.
Ugh..right...Duuuh!....

[mikegi]

However, the likely damage is not to humans directly, but to satellites and the upper atmosphere. That’s because an explosion of this type generates huge amounts of high-energy radiation such as gamma rays. We on Earth are well shielded from gamma rays by our atmosphere, but satellites in space would be vulnerable and some of their electronics could be damaged by such an event.

I expect to see this story on Northeast Intelligence Network tomorrow:

02 December 2003; 0800EST -- UPGRADED TO EXTREME WARNING STATUS: Analysts at Northeast Intelligence Network have tied together several fragmentary Al Qaeda bulletin board messages. Our analysts are continuing their work but have determined the following: Al Qaeda astronomers have closely studied the events on Eta Carinae and determined that the star went hypernova 7500 years ago. The "blast" from this explosion will impact the Earth shortly between the end of Ramadan and Christmas and result in the loss of satellite communications. This is what previous cryptic Al Qaeda messages were referring to when they claimed that Al Qaeda's next strike would "cut America off from communication with its armies in Muslim countries". In the resulting chaos, Al Qaeda terrorists will unleash multiple terrorist attacks worldwide with a possible focus on large cities, small cities, towns, and villages.

Cutting edge, detailed investigative work like this requires tremendous resources. We are providing a critical service to the United States of America. We would like to continue this service without pop-up advertisements. Please contribute as much as you can to make this possible. Donations should be sent to: Fly By Night Enterprises, PO Box 99, NYC, NY. Thank you.

[Mike Darancette]

It is more likely, however, that Eta Carinae will go supernova long before it simply withers away. That dramatic event could occur within 10,000 or perhaps 20,000 years.

Since the star is 7,500 light years away maybe it already has.

[Verginius Rufus]

The speed per hour works out to about 41 miles per second, if I have done my arithmetic correctly, or a bit more than twice the speed the earth is going as it revolves around the sun.

[bd476]

"Yeah, but the the speed of light is six hundred sixty nine million, six hundred thousand miles per hour."

LOL, no fair, you did the Math. And I bet you used a calculator, too.

See if you can come up with the answer Forrest Gump figured on the following question:

"How many seconds are there in a year?"

[petuniasevan]

Thanks for the ping, 'friend. Eta Car was the subject of the 11-27-2003 APOD.

[Joe Hadenuf]

LOL, no fair, you did the Math. And I bet you used a calculator, too.

Actually, there is an easy way to figure this out using your fingers on just one hand.

I'll reveal this method at another time.

[Old Professer]

If it is 7500 light years away, how do we know that it hasn't already exploded?

[Old Professer]

About 435 miles per second.

[null and void]

twelve

[MediaMole]

What now has astronomers thinking again about Eta Carinae's ultimate end is what has happened since 1998: It has suddenly started brightening again, more than doubling in brightness in the last 18 months.

More accurately, it began brightening some 7505 years ago and may have already gone supernova but we are just learning about it now.

[MediaMole]

Note to self, read all the replies before responding.

[NormsRevenge]

LMAO :-)

[Verginius Rufus]

Oops--I crossed out one too many zeroes. I come out with about 412 miles per second.