Slashdot Mirror
'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.'"
443 million years ago
How do these fancy-pants "scientists" know what happened 442,994,000 years before Earth was created?
Trolling is a art,
It was nice knowing you.
cmd-q.co.uk - some sort of stupid fucking internet bullshit
The problem is that we see the star as it was 6500 years ago. As far as we know, it could have already exploded, and a good bunch of gamma rays be coming to us right now. So you were right, we're doomed ^^
>> Cosmos Magazine reports
Other articles include:
10 Fabulous Handbags for the Apocalypse
Is Your Man Cheating? Find Out With A Quantum Telescope.
Lose Weight Fast - New Dark Matter Diet.
Sorry, exhaust port is out. I put some chicken mesh over the exhaust port and held it place with blutack and duck tape - nothing will dislodge the combined powers of the dark forces holding the mesh in place.
I've also trained the gunners as to what the rebel ships look like and what the empire ships look like together with electro therapy they now know what to shoot at.
The major commander on the death star will not be on board one of the fighters defending it.
And anyway when the heroes first arrive on the station they will be taken, under armed guard, placed against the nearest wall and shot. Following being shot they will have their heads chopped off while I watch giving no chance for them to stage a stunning escape and disrupt my evil plans. This death will lack drama will be simple, won't go wrong, will make a mess - but hey, I've got an army of evil underlings who can clean up.
--- Users are like bacteria -> Each one causing a thousand tiny crises until the host finally gives up and dies.
You mean I've been driving a Prius and spending my beer money on renewable energy only to have this happen!??!
Bart: Aw, recycling's useless, Lis. Once the Sun burns out, this planet is doomed. You're just making sure we spend our last days using inferior products.
~Philly
That would explain why his ping sucks in TF2.
Right here.
Nah, polarity flips have been happening for a long time; if we lost our atmosphere every time, this planet would LOOK like mars...Anyway, Mars has no atmosphere because it's too small, not because it doesn't have a liquid core with the attendant magnetic field. Losing the magnetic field (which may or may not happen during a flip...Geologic data isn't precise enough to tell) could cause some problems with regards to the solar wind, but complete loss of atmosphere is extremely unlikely.
The average period between pole flips is about 250,000 years, so that will give you a pretty good idea of how often it happens, and how unlikely it is that atmospheric loss follows. For the curious, it's been about 800,000 years since the last flip, so we're due one.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
message: Ha Ha
Then the gamma ray hits.
Let's start by putting some detectors out in space that ping us every second. When the burst hits the sensors out there in space and destroys them we'll know here on Earth because the pings will stop. Put them out about a light year away and we'll have a whole year to prepare.
See, problem solved.
I think you're absolutely right. We narrowly survived the GWB that occurred in 2000 and will have lasted for 8 yea.... oh..
GRB...
Never mind.
--Coming up with something clever... please wait...
Reminds me of an old joke:
A man has gained an audience with God.
Man: Oh Lord, what is a million years like to you?
God: To me, my son, a million years is but a day.
Man: Oh Lord, what is a million dollars like to you?
God: To me, my son, a million dollars is but a penny.
Man: Oh Lord, would you give me a penny?
God: Tomorrow.