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Supernova May Wipe Out Earth... Someday

Halster writes "And it could take our planet with it. Reported in the New Scientist. Harvard student Karin Sandstrom discovered the star while researching a paper. It's named HR 8210, and is a white dwarf about 150 light years from our planet, that's 10 light years short of the 160 to 200 theoretical light years thought to be a safe distance from a SuperNova. Left alone it won't turn SuperNova, but it's parked next to another Sun that will "Very soon" turn into a red giant star and expand lending mass to the HR 8210 which will then push HR 8210 over the edge and go SuperNova on us. Course "Very soon" to an astronomer is hundreds of millions of years. And by that time the two stars will likely have moved away from the earth. So don't jump into your escape pod yet." Update: 05/23 20:16 GMT by M : Heh. It seems New Scientist didn't get the story quite right. :) Read the correction below.

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  1. Re:Do we really need the ozone layer? by eggstasy · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Did you even read what I wrote?
    I said that we could grow plants in special greenhouses or even under artificial lighting.
    Plus most (farm) animals spend their entire lives indoors, and the others we can do well without.
    I shudder at the thought that most wildlife would be gone though. But we could always throw some funding at the DNA Noah's Ark project so we could regenerate wildlife afterwards.
    Does anyone else feel like we're getting pretty close to achieving deity status?