Mitch Cronin Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Alpha Orionis. - about 15 solar masses (15 times the mass of our own star) - somewhere between 4.1 and 5 AU in diameter (1 Astronomical Unit being the distance between Earth and the Sun - which, if it were our sun, would put Betelguese's edges out near Jupiter) - only about ten million years old, but as a red super-giant, is in it's last days - currently thought to be busily fusing helium into carbon and oxygen, having already fused all it's hydrogen into helium. - about 570 light years distant - ready to blow up in a spectacular supernova any time now (on astronomical time scales... could be today, tomorrow, or another hundred thousand years or more) and would be visible to us in full daylight! ["mas"= milliarcseconds - 10 mas = 0.01 arcseconds ] ....from today's APOD of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Now that is cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 One can only assume that any day now, Starfleet will be issuing a NOTAM to give that baby a very wide berth! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Say Again, Over! Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 You mean a NOTSM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 You mean a NOTSM! Yes, of course! Unless it was in the Next Generation era, in which case the PC element in Starfleet will have taken over and it will have been changed to NOTSP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JL Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Lets' hope it happened about 569 years ago and we should see it some time this year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest woxof Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 I would strongly suggest that you should not want this to happen . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boestar Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 but it WILL happen. Eventually it will happen to our sun as well. Our sun is very young but evventually the hydrogen will be gone from it as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canus Chinookus Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I would strongly suggest that you should not want this to happen . I don't think it's close enough to do us any harm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.O. Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 We only have about 5 billion more years to worry about greenhouse gases before the Sun becomes a red giant and engulfs the earth. I wonder what Al Gore's descendants will do then! Why do I have this not so nice feeling that we will screw up our planet to the point of no return long before that day comes? I just wish I could say whether it will be polution or will it be political / religious strife that takes us all out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kip Powick Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Well there you go...I guess I'll forget about those credit card charges Earth 'to be wiped out' by supernova explosion The Earth could soon be wiped out by the explosion of a star more than 3,000 light years away, according to American scientists. By Ben Leach Published: 9:39AM GMT 06 Jan 2010 The star, called T Pyxidis, is set to self-destruct in an explosion called a supernova with the force of 20 billion billion billion megatons of TNT Although the star is thought to be around 3,260 light-years away – a fairly short distance in galactic terms – the blast from the thermonuclear explosion could strip away the Earth's ozone layer, the scientists said. University, Philadelphia, in the US, said the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite has shown them that T Pyxidis is really two stars, one called a white dwarf that is sucking in gas and steadily growing. When it reaches a critical mass it will blow itself to pieces. It will become as bright as all the other stars in the galaxy put together, they said. The Hubble space telescope has photographed the star preparing for its big bang with a series of smaller blasts or "burps", called novas. These explosions came regularly about every 20 years from 1890 – but stopped after 1967. So the next blast is nearly 20 years overdue, said scientists Edward M Sion, Patrick Godon and Timothy McClain at the American Astronomical Society in Washington. Robin Scagell, vice-president of the UK's Society for Popular Astronomy, said: "The star may certainly became a supernova soon – but soon could still be a long way off so don't have nightmares." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest woxof Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I don't think it's close enough to do us any harm. "A near-Earth supernova is an explosion resulting from the death of a star that occurs close enough to the Earth (roughly fewer than 100 light-years away) to have noticeable effects on its biosphere. Gamma rays from a supernova induce a chemical reaction in the upper atmosphere, converting molecular nitrogen into nitrogen oxides, depleting the ozone layer enough to expose the surface to harmful solar and cosmic radiation. This has been proposed as the cause of the end Ordovician extinction, which resulted in the death of nearly 60% of the oceanic life on Earth" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova I would strongly suggest that you should not want this to happen . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDR Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Here's something that can do us a lot more harm that's right here at home. I add this to the discussion just to brighten up your day. Super Volcano Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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