Looking for something else to worry about, consider T Pyxidis . . . it may be the end to all of us.
Astronomers at Villanova University believe T Pyxidis is really two stars with one being a white dwarf that is sucking in gas and steadily growing. It will eventually explode and possibly end life on this planet. It is simply not known when. I am personally waiting on finishing my grading of the finals in anticipation that T Pyxidis will supply the ultimate curve.
For the full story, click here.
Except that is something we can impact by changing how we humans are altering atmospheric chemistry, bdaonetricktroll. Go ahead and not worry about global warming until the oceans Ph changes to become so acidic to where no life can live in the shallows. Stand by in ignorant bliss as all life on the surface starts to die without the plankton and algae that form the base of the food web on which we all depend for survival.
The topic on this thread is still astronomy, not your Big Oil sponsored climate change propaganda. You are still just preaching the Gospel of Larry – the loon who told me he’d talked to Jesus and Jesus wants us to burn oil.
I’m going to do you a solid. Your trolling would be more effective if you’d target it better. That’s your lesson for the day. Save your CC crap for threads about the environment – like threads about pollution – and they’ll make you look less like a bone-headed troll completely unable to stick to a topic not dictated by his corporatist masters. You need some new dance steps. I just gave you one. See if you can learn it.
AY,
Either or.
Gyges,
The book or the result?
Phil Plate (the man whose astronomy Blog I linked too yesterday) wrote a great book about all the ways the earth can be destroyed. It’s called “Death from The Skies” I highly recommend it.
Yea like global warming, I mean Climate Change
Byron,
Exactly. The really salient point about interstellar dangers to the planet is that there are many, many more potential events that we have zero chance of effecting than ones that we could possibly effect. Worrying about the ones beyond our control like novae and wandering black holes is pointless. We are way too far down the technological totem pole to even consider trying to change those events.
So in the words of Warren Zevon, “Enjoy that sandwich.”
For all the hand wringers and alarmists out there, this will make you feel better.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/star-verge-supernova-could-threaten-life-earth
From the end of the article.
“But the fantastic scale of the cosmos that allows such massive, cataclysmic events to unravel also bears a silver lining for those of us on Earth (2012 believers, stop reading now). Though in terms of star life supernova is likely around the cosmic corner, it’s estimated to happen many millions of earth years from now, a full 10 million years by some estimates. Suffice it to say that we’re far enough from T Pyxidis that we can’t really tell exactly how big it is or how quickly it’s accreting mass. But the end of the world isn’t coming tomorrow. Or even in two years.”
Now folks, doncha go frettin’ ’bout no asstrids. Gawd will stop ’em with *hisn* index fanger like he wuz a’flickin’ dried snot of’n hit.
Alls we gotta do is pray thru brit Hume, Pasture Ric Warrin’ et al. and sends ’em $935.4854 millon fur theys religious efforts at savin’ the planet.
Hot dang! Gimme ‘dat ole Tyme Religin’ tae save gawd’s *brown* earth.
Off topic–but science-related
From LiveScience
Four-legged Creature’s Footprints Force Evolution Rethink
By Jeanna Bryner, January 6, 2010
Excerpts:
Four-legged creatures were mucking around a muddy basin in what is now Poland about 397 million years ago. And they left behind distinctive footprints, which have turned back the clock on the evolution of these landlubbers.
***************
The discovery helps to refine the timing of the transition from our fishy ancestors to land creatures, which until now was thought to have occurred about 380 million years ago or so. The new discoveries show the four-leggers were stomping around millions of years earlier than had been estimated based on fossils. Until now, the earliest complete evidence for a four-limbed animal with digits came from Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, which date back to between 374 million and 359 million years ago.
http://www.livescience.com/animals/100106-tetrapod-footprints.html
A reminder of how tenuous life is and a caution to live each moment to the fullest.
There are plenty of ideas on how to deflect and asteroid that don’t involve nuclear weapons, usually something along the lines proposed to attach either solar sails or some kind of drive system to create enough of a trajectory change. I’ve seen ideas that range from traditional rockets to ion drives to tethering a large mass to the rock in question. The earlier you catch the asteroid, the smaller the angle of deflection you’d need to impose to cause it to miss its target. Basic physics.
But the Russians are foolish to mess with Apophis.
It’s going to miss us . . . barely. So by all means, use that asteroid as your test bed. What could possibly go wrong with that? I’m all for them trying whatever they want to try. It’s a technology that could be very important some day. There are plenty of NEO’s to chose from that pose no danger of impact. Perhaps one on a non-Earth threatening trajectory would be a better option for testing.
Keep in mind the safety record of the Soviet space program. Compartively speaking they’ve lost a lot of cosmonauts and gear over the years – for a variety of reasons – but Apophis is something you do not want to hear “Oops!” about.
Intelligent design — indeed!
The Russians will save us. You’ll have to translate the page but not to worry, China and Russia both are moving alot faster than the U.S. We might of beat them to the moon and have the soon to be ex space shuttle fleet but they will save us.
In an interview today with Voice of Russia radio, Russia’s space agency chief said discussions would begin soon over a plan to save the world from a collision with a massive asteroid.
It’s not clear how, exactly, the Russians plan to deflect Apophis, a chunk of rock the size of two and a half soccer fields that was first discovered by astronomers in 2004. Anatoly Perminov, the space agency head, promised that there would be “no nuclear explosions” and that everything would be done “on the basis of the laws of physics.”
http://rus.ruvr.ru/2009/12/30/3352051.html
AY, it is like De Ja Vu, I seen it coming. Thanks Professor
Bdaman
1, January 6, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Enlighten us oh wise one on T Pyxidis.
So, I’m thinking I won’t bother cleaning my bedroom, just in case.
Hmm, methinks it is like this has happened before. Kinda like De Ja Vu.
This is a Type Ia supernova- the type they use as the “standard candle”.
A white dwarf is held up by electron degeneracy pressure. The electrons are packed solidly together like they are in atoms, and the star is no more compressible than an ordinary atom, as opposed to a normal star which is a classical gas.
If a trickle of stuff keeps falling onto a white dwarf, its gravity rises which slowly crushes the star. Reduction in size can only happen by the characteristic electron orbitals getting smaller, which means their energy slowly rises (since energy is inversely proportional to wavelength).
Once the electron energy is just high enough to force the proton + electron -> neutron + neutrino reaction, the star explodes and collapses down to a neutron star. So all Type Ia supernovas are the same intensity. 99% of the energy leaves as neutrinos, and less than 1% as photons. Only a few percent of the photons are visible light. They still outshine the entire rest of the galaxy they’re in, and are routinely observed in other galaxies and used as standard candles. This is how we discovered dark energy.
Just add this to the list things like wandering asteroids (which we might see in time to do something about or not), comets (which we’d likely not see until it’s way too late to anything but die) and wandering black holes.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/blackhole_010913.html
Or in the words of Doctor McCoy, “Don’t pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait till you’re sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles, see if you’re so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.”
Creation is no gentle place.
Geeze Prof.
your just a ray of sunshine on a cloudy cloudy day
Amon Re:
I live to be of service.
I think they prefer to be called mass challenged.