Monday, January 7, 2008

A Potential Eruption...From a Star

What would happen if our Earth were in the pathway of a major eruption? Not just a volcano eruption, but there a star that might blow up and seriously harm Earth.
Super Novas are about as bad as a n explosion can get. A super nova is when a star dies and it usually ends up with a big explosion and turns into a black hole. There are many stars that astronomers have noticed with a super nova or the same “symptoms” of a super nova.

There was a star estimated at 240 million light years away that recently experienced a super-duper nova (big star, big explosion). There is a star in our galaxy about 7,500 light years away that is showing the same signs that SN 2006gy showed before its super nova. If Eta Carinae had a super nova it could affect Earth if it released deadly gamma radiation. There also is the possibility that the gamma radiation could totally miss Earth. It’s believed that these kind of eruptions are what formed Earth as we know it. This could be bad if it happened to close to Earth.

I think that an eruption of any kind could hurt Earth, the devastation would differ, but I am positive that it would hurt us. We only have a little radiation from the sun on Earth and it still hurts people on Earth. It also isn’t exploding on us to give us that radiation. I think that there is a chance that we might be passed over by the radiation, but if a start blew up we would surely be hurt. I also have some reasons why I think that this would hurt us.

We believe that our Earth was formed by an eruption millions of years ago. We don’t know where that eruption could have happened, but no doubt it was close. If we were to receive an eruption from a star, relatively close, it would probably affect life on Earth. If light can travel forever from a star than a massive star could probably launch some radiation pretty far. The affect would probably leave Earth with a quick “attack” or time when we were directly affected by the eruption. I believe that after we would be affected by the things that were left over, like radiation.

In conclusion I think that an eruption could be pretty devastating, but it also could be a very small matter. What I mean is that if Eta Carinae did blow up that we could be out of its reach, or we might be seriously hurt by it. I think that 7,500 years light speed is a lot different than the speed of radiation so if we were affected it would be a long time from now. I really am totally clueless, because I don’t think that we have ever seen a star explode on Earth. I do however; think that it would affect Earth some way or another.

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