Binary "deathstar" to shine gamma rays on Earth and devastate life?

Ignoramus30307 · 2008-03-04T21:14:51+00:00

'deathstar' has Earth in its sightsTuesday, 4 March 2008by John PickrellCosmos OnlineBinary 'deathstar' has Earth in its sightsDestroyer of worlds: Astronomers overlaid 11 time lapse images of therotating star system WR 104 to reveal a 30 billion-kilometre-long tailthat billows out in a spiral around it.Image: University of SydneyRelated articles * Antique star-gazing technology reveals new wonders * Cosmic explosion from nowhere * Cosmic explosion is shot in the dark * Star's dramatic explosion witnessed for the first time * Massive explosion is brightest-ever supernovaSYDNEY: A spectacular, rotating binary star system is a ticking timebomb, ready to throw out a searing beam of high-energy gamma rays andEarth may be right in the line of fire.Astronomers at the University of Sydney, in Australia, firstdiscovered the unusual and beguilingly beautiful star system eightyears ago in the Constellation Sagittarius. One member of the pair isa highly unstable star known as a Wolf-Rayet, thought to be the finalstage of stellar evolution to precede a cataclysmic supernovaexplosion."When it finally explodes as a supernova, it could emit an intensebeam of gamma rays coming our way", said Peter Tuthill, leadresearcher of the team who report their findings in the currentAstrophysical Journal.Vast and glowing plumeAt a distance of 8,000 light years from Earth, the pair of stars are ashort hop away in galactic terms, and just one quarter of the way tothe centre of our Milky Way galaxy.The researchers took images of the system, known as WR 104, over aperiod of eight years using Hawaii's Keck Telescope. These imagesreveal a vast and glowing plume of heated dust and gas, billowing outin a spiral as the stars rotate once every eight months. This 'tail'is up to 30 billion kilometres long.But something curious about the images caught the attention of theexperts."Viewed from Earth, the rotating tail appears to be laid out on thesky in an almost perfect spiral. It could...

Mar 04, 2008 20 Replies

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Bob Brock 18 years ago

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