Destroyer of worlds: Astronomers overlaid 11 time lapse images of the rotating star system WR 104 to reveal a 30 billion-kilometre-long tail that billows out in a spiral around it.
Credit: University of Sydney
SYDNEY: A spectacular, rotating binary star system is a ticking time bomb, ready to throw out a searing beam of high-energy gamma rays – and Earth may be right in the line of fire.
Astronomers at the University of Sydney, in Australia, first discovered the unusual and beguilingly beautiful star system eight years ago in the Constellation Sagittarius. One member of the pair is a highly unstable star known as a Wolf-Rayet, thought to be the final stage of stellar evolution to precede a cataclysmic supernova explosion.
"When it finally explodes as a supernova, it could emit an intense beam of gamma rays coming our way", said Peter Tuthill, lead researcher of the team that report their findings in the current Astrophysical Journal.
Vast and glowing plume
At a distance of 8,000 light-years from Earth, the pair of stars are a short hop away in galactic terms, and just one quarter of the way to the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.
The researchers took images of the system, known as WR 104, over a period of eight years using Hawaii's Keck Telescope. These images reveal a vast and glowing plume of heated dust and gas, billowing out in 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 the experts.
"Viewed from Earth, the rotating tail appears to be laid out on the sky in an almost perfect spiral. It could only appear like that if we are looking nearly exactly down on the axis of the binary system," said Tuthill.
This means we are peering down the barrel of the gun, as when binary supernovae go off, all their energy is focussed into a narrow beam of wildly destructive gamma ray radiation that emanates (both up and down) from the poles of the system.
"If such a gamma-ray burst happens, we really do not want Earth to be in the way," he said. "I used to appreciate this spiral just for its beautiful form, but now I can't help a twinge of feeling that it is uncannily like looking down a rifle barrel."
Relative motion of our system and deathstar will save us
If we've got 100's of thousands of years before this thing blows, isn't it likely that differences in relative motion of our system and the "deathstar" will take us out of the line of fire?
Maybe
Maybe, maybe not--maybe our sun's motion parallels this binary star's motion, so that we might be in its sights even longer. It might even fine-tune the pointing of the "barrel of the gun" in our direction. Given enough time, our solar system will be out of the blast path, but it would be nice if these or some other astronomers were to calculate how long it might take for the beneficial scenario to take place.
Rifle or shotgun?
It could make a huge differenmce how much this burst spreads with distance.
If it spreads more, a hit is more likely, but it would be less damaging. Though "less damaging" could still be at the bounce-the-rubble level of damage.
Watergun
I think Hillary Clinton should send a firemen out there to extinguish the star.
The Ancients Knew
Instead of "looking down a rifle barrel", a more accurate description would be "looking down the shaft of an arrow". All of the ancient cultures of the earth had identical zodiacs with constellations and star names that have uniform meanings across all languages. E.W. Bullinger's book "The Witness of the Stars" is a good read for anyone who, like me, finds it strangely co-incidental that the source of this damaging shot of gamma rays will eventually come out of Sagittarius, "The Archer". In the constellation Capricorn there is also a star named "Sagittus" that the ancients termed "the arrow sent forth", which also symbolically brings Saggitarius to mind. People mock both the study of the bible and of "astrology" as irrational, superstitious purstuits. If you look at the evidence objectively, it is impossible to avoid the fact that all the ancient zodiacs and astrological records are based on a common source. The prophetic themes of the bible parallel the concepts contained in the ancient records. After the revelation was put in writing, people began to forget the truth of the original revelation that was associated with the constellations and "astrology" was perverted to the self-serving form of prognosticating that it is today. Originally it foretold something far more grand. People have done the same thing with the words of the bible, but the truth will make itself manifest. All of creation has had, and will have, trouble, pain and sorrow, but the Redeemer will come and we will all eventually find that it has been worth it.
Revelashunz
Ceiling Cat noes wat teh starz holdz 4 U...
Ceiling Cat Is God
Bewarez
The Ancients Knew
I'd like to get your source saying that all of the zodiacs, and constellatons, and star names were held and viewed as identical throughout the ancient world.
As I understand it, based upon the sciences and historical texts I've read, they were not identical at all.
But I could be wrong. I would definitely accept that.
There was the destruction of the Library of Alexandria to consider. Per Carl Sagan in "Cosmos" this was a deliberate act. The information in this library could have yielded substance to or refuted your claim outright about these similarities, but it's gone now and we'll never truly know what exactly the Ancients knew.
But, please don't use the Bible in this equation. Out of all the ancient tomes, it is perhaps the most edited, most politically-oriented, and vilest piece of work out of all of them. It is not a viable source for truth. A magazine of lies at worse, a source for interesting metaphor at best.
Close, but no cigar
That is correct, Revelation was based on astrological observations of the ancient peoples. But, they also converted planets and stars, comets and meteors, as well as earthquakes, volcanoes, lightning and thunder into "Gods" , and you seem to have missed that cogent point with your imaginary "Redeemer" comment.
There is no "God", except the one inside of us all.
"The Bible" is a compilation of more ancient observations of astrology, lifted sometimes word for word, from more ancient mythical archetypes. Nothing original or factual in it, as archeology has shown regarding the lack of any proof of any of it's myths, which is to be expected of any myths.
Om
"There is no 'God', except the one inside of us all."
"Progress" appears a journey through religious beliefs. The new chant supersedes the old. It is a circular route. There is nothing new under the sun.