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Star on course to meet Solar system identified
Published: 12 March, 2010, 15:54
Edited: 26 August, 2010, 12:52
Movement of an orange dwarf star with a mass of about half that of the Sun will eventually bring it right to the solar system, stellar data analysis indicates.
The Gliese 710 from the constellation Serpens Cauda is due to arrive in about 1.5 million years, and has an 86 per cent probability of passing through the Oort Cloud, says Vadim Bobylev at the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in St. Petersburg.
“Of course we are not talking about one star ‘ramming’ into another. Such an event is almost impossible. But during a close encounter, a passing star’s gravity field may affect objects in the Solar system. For instance, it can cause a comet shower, which would reach the region of big planets. Some authors believe comet bombardments in Earth’s past to be results of such showers,” Bobylev commented for RT.
He added that, “Considering the fact that the comet shower would reach big planets some 0.5 to 1 million years after the passing of GL 710, the effect of the passage would not be catastrophic, and will happen over a very long period.”
The prediction is based on analysis of data from the European Space Agency’s Hipparcos astrometric spacecraft, which measured velocities of almost 120,000 stars in the early 1990s, as well as some recent data.
Bobylev analyzed the measured movements of about 35,000 stars in our neighborhood in the time interval from 2 million years in the past to 2 million years in the future. It resulted in adding nine new stars to the list of those which experience close encounters with the Solar system – either in the past or in the future, he reports in a paper published on arXiv.org website.
GL 710 was already known to have a scheduled rendezvous with us. However, Bobylev’s analysis indicates a high chance of passing closer than expected. It even has one chance in 1,000 of approaching close enough to significantly affect objects within the Kuiper Belt, i.e. planets, moons and asteroids. This could be bad news for our descendants.
The Oort Cloud is a hypothetical cloud of comets on the solar system’s boundaries, stretching about one light year away from the sun.
10.03.2010, 17:14
“Computer science Nobel” goes to personal computer creatorCharles Thacker, creator of the world’s first modern personal computer, Alto, has received the 2009 Turing Award, which is considered the highest honor for computer engineering, a “Nobel Prize” of the industry. |
12.03.2010, 18:08
Historama, March 12This day marks the end of a disastrous war, the test run of a revolutionary discovery and the final transfer of a Russian capital. |
As Presider of the Asteroid Detection, Deflection, and Development (ADDD) project several other mega disasters in the far future beg for a way to communicate by an enduring monument to our descendants past the collapse of civilizations due to natural or manmade disasters. The 1.6 Myr date of this one is about half a million years after our Solar System plows into the gas wall of the Orion and Perseus Arms of our galaxy, which will definitely shift comets and asteroids to pelt us as they have been cyclically doing whenever we travel through 3 arms. See Paul Janke, Curator of the World Natural History Museum wnhm.org. Artists with laser-cutting rock art on Earth and in Space could do much to insure human survival. A history of science and formulas permanently engraved on granite or space objects could assist the rise of science again in order to save the next generation from death from above be it traveling stars, flying rocks or ice, gamma ray waves from deathstar supernovas that can clease half a galaxy of life, ... We could have some fun caring about our children in the far future, even if they don't need the help, they would know we cared.
I see where you're going Brock, but if our decendants are as ignorant as we're today, they'll just ignore all this signs and data we leave for them.. or label them prehistotic art of stone age predecesors who let their minds go wild, and will go straight for the disaster despite our best efforts.. . What esle can you expect when they'll be our decendants?..