'Death Star' Aimed at Earth

An anonymous reader writes "A spectacular, rotating binary star system is a ticking time bomb, ready to throw out a searing beam of high-energy gamma rays that could lead to a major extinction event — and Earth may be right in the line of fire. Australian science magazine Cosmos Magazine reports: 'Though the risk may be remote, there is evidence that gamma ray bursts have swept over the planet at various points in Earth's history with a devastating effect on life. A 2005 study showed that a gamma-ray burst originating within 6,500 light years of Earth could be enough to strip away the ozone layer and cause a mass extinction. Researchers led by Adrian Melott at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, U.S., suggest that such an event may have been responsible for a mass extinction 443 million years ago, in the late Ordovician period, which wiped out 60 per cent of life and cooled the planet.'"

Comments

Atmosphere? What atmosphere?

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw a show a year or two ago that said scientists believe the earth could soon lose its atmosphere in same the way that they think Mars once did due to the flipping or loss of its magnetic field as the core continues to flow and cool. I can't recall the name of the show but a quick Google show that Nova covered this in 2003.

Re:Thanks guys

[Intron]

"we probably still have hundreds of thousands of years to come up with a solution, said Tuthill."

Which leads us to the interesting question: If we knew we were in danger and had 100,000 years to do something about it, what would be the simplest solution?

1) Move everybody somewhere else
2) Put up shields
3) Move the Solar system out of the way
4) Point the Supernova at the Arcturans instead