Real Death Star Could Strike Earth

topic posted Mon, March 10, 2008 - 8:51 AM by  Chopper22
Real Death Star Could Strike Earth

"A beautiful pinwheel in space might one day blast Earth with death rays, scientists now report.

Unlike the moon-sized Death Star from Star Wars, which has to get close to a planet to blast it, this blazing spiral has the potential to burn worlds from thousands of light-years away.

"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," said researcher Peter Tuthill, an astronomer at the University of Sydney. "

news.yahoo.com/s/space/20...strikeearth

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  • Re: Real Death Star Could Strike Earth (Related)

    Mon, March 10, 2008 - 5:58 PM
    ______________________________________

    Black holes could bump asteroids our way
    10 March 2008


    AS if forecasting whether asteroids will hit the Earth wasn't hard enough, it now seems that primordial black holes could surprise us by nudging a rock or two our way.

    Some physicists think these little black holes, invisible remnants of the early universe, could be a candidate for the dark matter making up much of the universe's mass. Alexander Shatskiy of the Lebedev Institute in Moscow, Russia, points out that if all dark matter, is black holes they would likely pass through the asteroid belts in our galactic backyard. Since a metre-sized primordial black hole can have the mass of the Earth, it would need only to pass near an asteroid to knock it out of a safe orbit and towards our planet, he says ( arxiv.org/abs/0802.3119 ).

    "If anything comes through and disrupts those clouds, we could be in trouble," says Daniel Holz, an astrophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. However, Holz points out that Shatskiy's estimates represent a worst-case scenario.
    In any case, the threat is unlikely to be immediate: Shatskiy's calculations suggest that an impact on Earth caused by black holes passing near an asteroid would only happen every 100 million years or so.

    From: space.newscientist.com/articl...ay.html

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    • Re: Real Death Star Could Strike Earth (Related)

      Mon, March 10, 2008 - 8:01 PM
      Indeed, many ponder now if this could be a reason that their might so far any signs of intelligent outside of Earth?
      • Re: Real Death Star Could Strike Earth (Related)

        Tue, March 11, 2008 - 4:58 AM
        "Indeed, many ponder now if this could be a reason that their might so far any signs of intelligent outside of Earth?"

        And on Earth??? The idea that primordial black holes may nudge asteroids out of their orbit is a stupid astrophysicist desperate to get some attention. Thanks for the opportunity to vent some frustration.
        • Re: Real Death Star Could Strike Earth (Related)

          Wed, April 30, 2008 - 10:29 AM
          The yahoo link seems outdated... any suggestions???
          • Re: Real Death Star Could Strike Earth (Related)

            Wed, April 30, 2008 - 12:26 PM
            Here's the permalink from the website of origin of the article, so to speak - www.space.com/scienceastr...-grb-us.html

            Yahoo copies their contents from other websites, mostly, and leaves a reference link at the bottom of the article. That's where I usually go when I want to post a link, or better yet, just copy-and-paste the whole thing; for, who knows what can happen to the server, the direct link might also get lost, but we would have the whole article right here, on Tribe.

            • Re: Real Death Star Could Strike Earth (Related)

              Wed, April 30, 2008 - 7:59 PM
              >>>And on Earth??? The idea that primordial black holes may nudge asteroids out of their orbit is a stupid astrophysicist desperate to get some attention. Thanks for the opportunity to vent some frustration.<<<

              Granted, but I was thinking along the lines of sterilization from something like hyper-nova events...
              • Re: Real Death Star Could Strike Earth (Related)

                Wed, April 30, 2008 - 8:54 PM
                Guys, guys, it's just guessing, nobody is stupid. It's a good example of an educated guess. It is not STATED that it is this way, read it again, (before jumping your shit off), it says [he] "suggested". It is just thinking out loud, figuratively speaking. Throwing a thought out and listening if there will be any feedback, a thought, an idea, a word.
                If this, than that, if that, then those, that's all there is to it. Personally, I would be a little more cautious (and respectful) to call people, especially with that extent of academic achievement - stupid.
                You woke up that morning, Mark, apparently feeling like shit (because of whatever purposelessness in your life), and instead of thinking about what to do about it, (with that life of yours or whatever), you decided to think about at who(m) to "vent your frustration" because you fucked up something (as anyone of us, due to your own "stupidity"), and now, looking (well, were looking) who(m) to blame. Be a man, and deal with it. Don't just lash your shit out at people like a pms-ing 16 year old (ugly) virgin who knows she will never, not even ever, get it in her life, if she doesn't do anything about it.

                The guy didn't come out of nowhere and said, "There are primordial frackin' black holes knocking shit down our way, run Mother Truckers for you lives!", no he didn't. Think of his words as a continuation of some other discussion that we are not aware of. This will help you to get rid of bias, and be able to open for - Scientific Investigation, which consists EXACTLY of things like that - assuming, guessing, checking, assuming, guessing, checking, assuming, guessing, checking, and assuming, guessing, and checking again, and again, and again, and again...



                Regards,
                Serge


                • Thanks 'novice priest' for the sober six week wait till you projected your projections onto my projections! ;-)

                  "you decided to think about at who(m) to "vent your frustration" " - Whom, in this case, is correct. Here I am the subject venting the frustration. I am venting it at the object of the aforementioned "stupid" astrophysicist. He is the 'whom' because he's the object. The other way round: The hapless, innocent astrophysicist WHO suffered immeasurably from the sexually frustrated Tribe member venting his frustration, took some Prozac. Here he is the subject because he 'does' the suffering. I hope this helps.
                  • This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
                    "If you have nothing to say, don't say anything" - English Proverb.

                    I did not wait for 6 weeks to "project" anything, Mark, I replied to Frozenstars, since a continuation of the conversation followed. Initially, I ignored the lash-out completely.
                    ....

                    The usage of "who" and "whom", in this context, implied the singular and plural form of addressing A person, or a Number of people, respectively.
                    ...


                    Mark,

                    Grow up, you are 41 already, and seem to be a reasonable person, judging from your profile (however little you put in there). So, act accordingly. Don't let some pitiful squabbles to get the best of you.

                    Regards,
                    Serge








                    P.S. What priest?

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