Starship Asterisk*

I feel that it is important to point out what we see this giant star doing today happened 6000 years ago. This means the star might of gone hyper nova 6000 years ago and tomorrow we might wake up to see a giant star glowing plainly visable during the day and dousing us with huge amounts gamma rays. The point is we can have no way of seeing it coming until it gets here.It would be a pulse of energy moving through space at the speed of light a space tusunami if you will.

would it still endanger us from this distance, i wonder?

eta Carinae,

A Dangerous Beauty !

So close and yet so far ,

Considering it to be a super-massive accumulation of material which is in the first stages of gravitational fire; the universe is very old, and yet this is a new star just forming !

Galactically speaking it is extremely close, and super massive.
Yet it is still 7500 light years, or 7500 years away !
(and that's a rough estimate; margin of error 20% ??)

Space-Time allows us space and time to live our lives by its sheer size.
This is how the duality (the fields and the particles); supports the plurality (gravity, inertia, energy) from collapsing. And likewise the plurality keeps the duality from collapsing, by other ingenious methods.

I would venture to say that something else has happened there which we do not see yet. It's a matter of doing the math, how much energy released, figure the surface area of the sphere at this distance, and our planetary area portion of that sphere, how much of the energy do we recieve? It's real small percent ! But we would likely feel something, tho I'd be surprised if I could feel the radiant energy on my face, it would arrive over too long of a time span.

I'll be passing out the cool ones while we get some Nova tan !!

Students of the Universe will have a front row seat for a real exciting show of what Gravity (undividedness) does with Matter (energy).
The Undivided interacting with the Infinite using leverage the Changeless (momentum/inertia) provides.

Sington) A GRB produces as much energy in 100 seconds as the sun will produce over its 10,000,000,000(billion)-year lifetime.This is such a huge explosion it truly starts to dwarf distances we consider safe barriers. Hypernova explosions have been put forth as starting the cascade of events that might have lead to the greatest mass extinction in earths history. Out at 2000 light years if the blast was beam toward earth life could have been fried but keep in mind these events start with stars in the 30 solar mass range and Eta might be 4x that size. So at 6000-8000 light years out and beamed toward us we could be hurting. But not to worry as I said before there is no way of knowing about it until it arrives unless you have a cat ( wonderfull creatures that sense everything).

Strange how the picture looks so like a captured moment just
as a sphere first begins to explode in a pattern much like an
antenna radiation pattern.

The effects you speak of give me pause as any effect can only
augment our rapidly warming environment.
The increased energy being added to our system with our decreased
reflectivity and loss of our upper ozone umbrella is feeding ever more
violent and dangerous features of the weather.

Let me make it clear what this event would be like on earth. The gamma rays would arrive first and they would be invisible and would last for less then 2 min. In this first two min the worst damage would be done.Follow this would be X rays ultra voliet and finally visible light. The visible would be spectacular for a few days with a bright fireball being seen during midday and lighting up the night sky. If you were on the star ward side of the planet when the gamma rays hit you would be in trouble fast. The other side of our sphere would have a breif reprieve but the damage to the atmoshere could be extensive. As the daystar started to fade the damage would become apparent. The point here is that cosmic event would be brief about a week tops but the damage to our fragile eco system could be severe and long lasting. Life caught in the gamma ray beam directly could suffer extremely.

Isn't food irradiated with gamma radiation? And I think they do almost all produce now days, as there is so little spoilage compared to in the 60's and 70's. I remember they threw away almost half of lots of things as they rotted before they sold. Now I can leave stuff sit for a week or more and it is still looking fresh. Tomatoes especially.
I suspect it kills a lot of enzymes too, and that is why we all eat so much and are still starving for proper nutrition, and have to take suppliments of all sorts to get what the body needs.

In the eta Carinae photo, the angle of the twin bulbs is not pointing at us !! TGIF ! So this may mean we will escape most of the onslought. We are actually midway between the bulbuses and the waist, so we will miss the polar thrust and the equatorial jets.
The equatorial jets look to be at 120 degrees. I wonder if a third one is going where we can't see it; in equal angles with the other two we do see.

There is no guarantee eta Carinae will explode in the same configuration it did the first time. If it does tho, we are in a very opportune position to miss the brunt of it.

Oh yeah, that was the innitial thought, if we do get a major gamma ray toasting, like irradiating food, all the bacteria in the soil will die, and that loss of the 'biosphere' will be a tragedy, but at least out tomatoes won't spoil.

kovil wrote:at least out[sic] tomatoes won't spoil.

And maybe us too !

All higher plants and animals depend upon bacteria and enzymes to extract most of the nutrients from their food.

A dosage as forcast here would be catastrophic.

Heres a good articule on the subject Much better then talking off the top of my head

A devastating burst of gamma rays may have caused one of Earth's worst mass extinctions, 443 million years ago.

A team of astrophysicists and palaeontologists says the pattern of trilobite extinctions at that time resembles the expected effects of a nearby gamma-ray burst (GRB). Although other experts have greeted the idea with some scepticism, most agree that it deserves further investigation.

GRBs are the most powerful explosions known. As giant stars collapse into black holes at the end of their lives, they fire incredibly intense pulses of gamma rays from their poles that can be detected even from across the universe for 10 seconds or so.

All the bursts astronomers have recorded so far have come from distant galaxies and been harmless on the ground, but if one occurred within our galaxy and was aimed straight at us, the effects could be devastating, according to astrophysicist Adrian Melott of the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

The Earth's atmosphere would soak up most of the gamma rays, Melott says, but their energy would rip apart nitrogen and oxygen molecules, creating a witch's brew of nitrogen oxides, especially the toxic brown gas nitrogen dioxide that colours photochemical smog (see graphic).

Melott estimates that a burst would produce enough of the gas to darken the sky, blotting out half the visible sunlight reaching the Earth. Nitrogen dioxide would also destroy the ozone layer, exposing surface life to a dangerous overdose of ultraviolet radiation from the sun for a year or more until the ozone recovered.

Plankton layer
The idea that GRBs could have affected the course of evolution was first suggested two years ago (New Scientist print edition, 15 December 2001, p 10). John Scalo and Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas at Austin estimated that GRBs close enough to affect life in some way might occur once every five million years or so - around a thousand times since life began.

Now Melott believes he has palaeontological evidence that this actually happened at the end of the Ordovician period 443 million years ago, causing one of the five largest extinctions of the past 500 million years. Working with Bruce Lieberman, a specialist in fossil trilobites also at the University of Kansas, and other colleagues, he looked at the pattern of extinctions in the late Ordovician.

The researchers found that species of trilobite that spent some of their lives in the plankton layer near the ocean surface were much harder hit than deep-water dwellers, which tended to stay put within quite restricted areas. Usually it is the more widely spread species that fare better in extinctions.

Melott says this unusual pattern could be explained by a GRB, which would probably devastate creatures living on land and near the ocean surface, but leave deep-sea creatures relatively unharmed.

Brachiopod species
Previous theories blame the two extinctions that occurred in the late Ordovician period on the start and end of an ice age at the time. But it is hard to explain what triggered the ice age itself, which started very suddenly at a time when the climate was quite warm.

Continental changes would have taken too long, and climate models have not been able to replicate the ice age. But a GRB that blocked out the sun could have caused it, points out Pat Brenchley, a retired palaeoecologist from the University of Liverpool, UK, calling the idea "an interesting alternative".

"I'd like to see a lot more information," says Peter Sheehan of the Milwaukee Public Museum, who has studied the Ordovician extinctions. When Sheehan looked at the pattern of extinctions among brachiopod species, he found that 90 per cent of the widespread species survived, compared with only 10 per cent of those living in restricted areas. This is the normal pattern during extinctions.

He thinks that glaciation alone might have killed off shallow-water species by draining water from shallow continental seas. Mellot concedes that a lot more work needs to be done, but is optimistic: "We think it's a good hypothesis."

Great posting Dave !!

That article really gets to the heart of the matter.

Life here, it's hit or miss; many things can be catastrophic, but those events are rather far apart in time, so life forms get to live and experiment in the meantime.

I wonder if Mars was on the 'wrong' side of the sun when the Ordovician GRB occurred, and it really got fried, and we might have been slightly shielded. How a matter of days or hours could spell such a difference.
The solar magnetic field might effect the traverse past of the GRB, and if we were in its shadow zone . . .

As long as it kills all them darn mosquitoes !!!!!

The Earth exists within a vast magnetic cocoon, a force-field that for billions of years has sheltered us on our journey through space. But now scientists have made a startling discovery. It seems there's a storm brewing deep within the Earth, a storm that is weakening our vital magnetic shield. Its strength is rapidly decreasing, so fast that at the current rate it will last only into the next millennium.

This might be the solution to one of the great mysteries of the solar system. Scientists suspect that the young Mars was in many ways an Earth-like place, with a thick atmosphere and oceans which may have harbored primitive life. But then, around 4,000,000,000 years ago, the planet entered a catastrophic decline. Gradually the atmosphere and oceans of Mars mysteriously disappeared.

The fate of Mars suggests that without the protection of its magnetic shield, the Earth could also become a dead planet, which makes it all the more disturbing to learn that our own magnetic field is fading so rapidly.
In three hundred years the field has fallen 10 percent. And the rate of decline is increasing. In just a few centuries it could be gone altogether.[/quote]

Martin,

The disappearance of surface water and the atmosphere on Mars is *not* mysterious. A combination of low gravity and weak magnetic field results in molecules in the atmosphere being constantly 'sputtered' into space by the solar wind. Whatever surface water there was would evaporate (or surface water ice would sublimate), and then the water molecules would have been lost into space. Any oxygen or hydrogen molecules produced when water molecules were smashed by incoming radiation would also have been lost into space, even faster. So, no mystery involved. You can read more about it at:

- http://www.esa.int/esaMI/Mars_Express/S ... FZD_0.html

...or at many other websites.

Martin wrote:The fate of Mars suggests that without the protection of its magnetic shield, the Earth could also become a dead planet, which makes it all the more disturbing to learn that our own magnetic field is fading so rapidly.
In three hundred years the field has fallen 10 percent. And the rate of decline is increasing. In just a few centuries it could be gone altogether.

Actually, Earth's magnetic field does this sort of thing all the time (well, every quarter-million years on average). Our planet's magnetic field is a bit unstable, and every once in a while it flips over, the north magnetic pole becoming south, and vice-versa. For a short period during the 'flip', the magnetic field more-or-less collapses. This is probably what we're coming up to, so it should be interesting times ahead. Should be good business for compass manufacturers once it's over, too.

Quite right Qev and fastartceetoo, thank you.

What is interesting here, however, is that to reverse polarities it has to completely stop (the Earth's magnetic field). There is a chance that when this happens that it may not start back up. Or it could take a long time to restart leaving the planet exposed.

I belive this will have a similar effect on a planet as a GRB, depending upon the distance and scale of its strength. -Am I painting the right picture in my mind? A strong enough GRB would 1st destroy a planet's magnetic field -right?

There are statements made here that insinuate water molecules and oxygen are able to accelerate to escape velocity and leave the confines of the earth system. That defies even the simplest of Newtonian physics. Nothing leaves the earth system without a hell of a rocket. I hear more people advancing this fallacious theory ( specially when discussing where the water on MARS go ? ) leading to an air of acceptance due to the larger number of uninformed , including a JPL scientist. spouting this theory. I don't think there is a public record of the Space Shuttle ever encountering atmospheric elements above 400000 feet. Pass an ice cold one

as you probably know, a gas is made of molecules that freely move around, and it is their speed what defines how hot that gas is. as you probably don't know, it does not mean that temperature of gas defines how fast its molecules move. there is only statistics that say, okay, the temperature of gas indicates that most of its molecules have speeds in some value region, but then again speeds are distributed along all numeric axis, so there theoretically perfectly possibly could be molecules that do not move anywhere or that do move quite fast.

A low magnetic field allows the solar wind much greater access to the atmosphere and the subsequent stripping of particles. NO magnetic field allows total access to scavange particles from the atmosphere at will.

A low gravity exacerbates the problem. I think this is why Mars lost its air and water. Too weak of a gravity and too weak of a magnetic field. Along with the catyclismic event of Olympus Mons blowing stuff out of orbit, and every crater causing impact too.

I think a GRB does not effect the magnetic field at all, in terms of its existance. Are gamma rays effected by magnetic fields? Part of me says no, as they are not electrically charged. So my idea of being in the suns magnetic field shadow zone is wrong.
Only electrically charged particles have their path altered by the magnetic field, right ? EM spectrum stuff passes right on by, and xrays, gamma rays and cosmic rays are EM spectrum, not charged particles, yes?
It's the old particles vs waves, and they are both and neither, so now it's my turn to be (not confused), but not totally certain.

That's what I forgot; the sun, when its equatorial rotation (25 days?) gets far enough ahead of its polar rotation (32 days?) the magnetic field lines get so twisted up like the knots in the rubberband of a popsicle stick aeroplane's propeller; that they start buckling throught the surface like sea-snakes, all loopey; then the north and south poles do a flip over.
This is the mechanism for the creation of sunspots and the sunspot cycle of 11 or so years. My question is how long is the quiet period of magnetic field strength at the flipover event time in the sun?

Is there any way to extrapolate that to earth? Or are they rather different animals? I can see how they would have significant differences in morphology. The earths probably takes a similar build up time to the wind down time before reversal. The main thing is what exactly is causing the magnetic field to be generated in the first place? As I recall there is considerable debate over it, if one doesn't just accept the mainstream explanation.
A dynamo of some kind of course, but what? When iron is hot enough to flow in the core in currents, it is non-magnetic !
Something to do with rotation, coriolus effect, and angular momentum combine to induce swirling in the interior constituants of the earth.
I suspect that is what is moving the surface plate techtonics effect.
There must be a similar difference in rotational speeds, like in the sun, within the earth, so that it winds up the magnetic field lines and then they flip.

Between the fields flipping and eta Carinae going nova, we need to find a way to be space worthy in the next 1000 years, eh? ! LOL

Martin wrote:Quite right Qev and fastartceetoo, thank you.

What is interesting here, however, is that to reverse polarities it has to completely stop (the Earth's magnetic field). There is a chance that when this happens that it may not start back up. Or it could take a long time to restart leaving the planet exposed.

I belive this will have a similar effect on a planet as a GRB, depending upon the distance and scale of its strength. -Am I painting the right picture in my mind? A strong enough GRB would 1st destroy a planet's magnetic field -right?

Actually, Earth's magnetic field never actually vanishes. I've seen simulations of the 'flip' period, and it seems more like it becomes terribly jumbled, rather than completely vanishing. Instead of having two poles, one north and one south, you end up with many north and south poles scattered across the globe. The simulation looked very much like dye and water being mixed. Here's a National Geographic article discussing simulations of this phenomenon.

Note that the Sun's magnetic field does this every 11 years, so it's not an unusual thing at all for large, spinning, magnetic objects in space.

As Kovil mentioned, gamma rays don't actually interact with magnetic fields at all, so a powerful GRB directed at Earth would have little effect on the planet's magnetic field; nor would the magnetic field serve to protect us significantly from the gamma rays of the burst (although any charged particles following behind the initial burst would probably be deflected). If it were nearby enough, the energetic gamma rays would probably annihilate the ozone layer on the facing side of the planet, though, and would probably pollute the atmosphere by triggering formation of nitrogen oxides. Nasty business. It's unlikely any gamma radiation would reach the surface of the planet, however.

ta152h0 wrote:There are statements made here that insinuate water molecules and oxygen are able to accelerate to escape velocity and leave the confines of the earth system. That defies even the simplest of Newtonian physics. Nothing leaves the earth system without a hell of a rocket. I hear more people advancing this fallacious theory ( specially when discussing where the water on MARS go ? ) leading to an air of acceptance due to the larger number of uninformed , including a JPL scientist. spouting this theory. I don't think there is a public record of the Space Shuttle ever encountering atmospheric elements above 400000 feet. Pass an ice cold one

Earth's atmosphere extends well past 200km in altitude, actually. This is why satellites have thrusters on them; the continuous drag of the (albeit tenuous) atmosphere causes their orbits to decay over time. This gets especially bad during solar storms, which energize the atmosphere and cause it to expand.

As for atmosphere escaping into space, it happens all the time. The average velocity of a gas molecule in the atmosphere at sea level and room temperature is roughly the same as your typical rifle bullet. When you get to the outer edges of the atmosphere, the density is lower and the temperature is MUCH higher, so the velocity of gas molecules up there can be significantly higher, even to the point of reaching escape velocity (which isn't all that terribly fast, to be honest, especially for light objects like gas molecules). Add into this solar protons and cosmic ray particles, which can impart very high energies to the things they hit, and without the Earth's magnetic field deflecting a lot of this we'd probably be breathing rather thinner air.

Hello All

The amount of molecules escaping the earth is quite minimal.

If the temp of the atmosphere increases by lets say 20 Deg C than the possibilty of greater escape by molecules.

Look at Venus, about the same size as earth and holds most of the water in the atomosphere which has expanded due to the high temp.

If magnatic field goes crook, the solar winds would hit not only the poles but other regions on earth. This would be like green house effect. With this the ozone layer in atmosphere would deplete. The atmosphere which normally shields high energy electromaganatic waves such as gamma would not be able to stop them from reaching earth. With this the oceans boil. That's the theory.

Venus due largely to its proximity to the sun has not been able to free up all its carbon from atmosphere. Which has resulted in very thick atmosphere and continuous acid rains. The beauty part is that the acid clouds builds three times higher than the water clouds. Imagine how would they look like. Any women around to tell? After all they are from venus.

Hello Links to Eta Carinae

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991011.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980816.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950712.html
http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/rosat ... ges11.html
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/%7Edolan/cons ... htest.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960404.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960111.html
http://astro.nineplanets.org/twn/n3372x.html

The size of this object is about 2 light years across, you could fit our solar system width wise 700 times,,,,,,,,,,,,wow!!!!! This star will become a neutron star or possibly a quark star leaving it with an ultra dense plasma matter, setting itslef up for a so called Black Hole.

Qev, We are 750k years over due for a polarity reversal. Since there was no recorded history then -it is completely unknown as to the exact behavior of the event. Except to say that obviously Earth's magnetic field (EMF) did restart. Every time this event occurs EMF stops. Fluctuations and activity may still linger but it stops nonetheless. How long it takes to regain it's protective cocoon is anyone's guess.

It Will collapse and it may not resurface or at least there could be a period where the Earth is left exposed to cosmic radiation and anything else headed our way.

Also, all the models I have seen regarding a GRB and a earth like planet in it's path is horrific. The planet will burn and life is destroyed -if I remember correctly.

Martin,
as QEV pointed out
"Note that the Sun's magnetic field does this every 11 years, so it's not an unusual thing at all for large, spinning, magnetic objects in space. "

This is something that the Sun goes through regularly, quickly, and with apparent ease so there is no apparent reason to believe the Earth would be dramatically different. We should still be prepared though, don't want to be caught sitting on our collective thumbs.