mycatharsis.com

It may look hypnotic, I know I’m starting to feel very, very sleepy. But to an astronomer, this spiral pattern says that we’re looking directly down the poles of this about to die star. Unlike Eta Carinae, which, while similarly close to ‘blowing’, doesn’t appear to have it’s poles pointed in our direction. And when it does, the earth could see a burst of gamma rays unlike any it’s experienced in at least a few hundred million years. We probably wouldn’t see the actual event, as a gamma ray burst might only last 5 seconds at max. Many don’t even last a full second. But the damage would be incredible, possibly burning off the entire ozone layer and starting a mass extinction. All the more incredible because this star is 8000 LIGHT-YEARS away! That translates to 47,027,998,500,000,000 miles away. (by the way, google DOES translate light years to miles, very cool!) 47 quadrillion miles away, and the power of a GRB is still enough to destroy a planet. Mind blowing.

If you’ve ever had even a passing interest in astronomy, this is the time to get interested again. I picked up a telescope last year with my tax return and have been amazed at the quality of astronomical news available since I’ve rekindled that interest. Of course we all know the Hubble scope, but theres also stuff like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and a whole slew of other space-based telescopes. I would think this has to be one of the most exciting times in history for an astronomy fan to be alive. And with even more powerful telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope on the way, it’s only going to get more incredible.