Part 1/7
Have you ever thought of the end of the world? Or do you just care to much about yourself and other people. Since we are drawing near to all this legends and rumors that the end of the world is here like 2012 and Armageddon. People are smart enough to know that it cannot possibly happen, but can it? Not really 2012 when the Earth would collapse but from the skies above. Like the day we get hit by an asteroid or a nuclear war? I am going to follow you in the countdown to the seven sources that can destroy our world from the most unlikely, to the most immanent. And make it into the death planet that never was.7. GAMMA-RAY BURST: The death of a star part 1/2
We all thought space was the coolest place to be, that when we grew up, we all wanted to be astronauts. You know; go in space and walk on the moon, see the stars. Well, everyone knows that space can be a dangerous place, because their is no air and oxygen to breath, but people are missing the real point. The universe is a very violent place. We all heard about the Big Bang theory and that it was the biggest explosion in the universes history. It literally created the whole universe. Now, what if you were told that those explosions, that big still happen today? How freaked out would you be? How about I tell you that the closest star to our world is about 4.7 light years away and is called Alpha Centauri. What if I tell you that this star has a big, big surprise for us.
Alpha Centauri has been alive for more than a couple of billion years. Yes it is a very old star and people will think what is so bad about that. it's not about how far away it is, it's about what the power of the star is. you see when stars are at their old age. You see the death of a star goes like this: it is born, then it grows and it dies depending on the mass of the star. The mass of Alpha Centauri is somewhere 3 times the mass of the sun and that means, it's is going to have a very catastrophic death. You see, a star that big would probably have it's fate like this: It starts its ending as a Red Super giant, then it explodes and causes the supernova. Now the gamma-ray burst (GRB) is the intense radiation from the beams and energy from the supernova that are released. A GRB can stretch as far as 8.2 light years away. It would knock out anything in its path and leave a road of destruction. So what if the scientests and the news tells you that today Alpha Centauri exploded? Well, don't panic then, it will take about a decade for us to actually witness the affect. We couldn't see it from earth or anything. All we could see is through a telescope, a bright light not that very big at all. So, if you just wait for a while may be 10-15 years or longer, you would see the result in the explosion of the GRB. That it would make a devastating blast of radiation that could burn our planet like a piece of toast. Temperature would be rising up to the highest temperatures in the history of the earth. They are the hottest, brightest thing you will ever see in your life. It's as big as an explosion could get. Don't dream about an atomic bomb. Think billions times that.
So what if all of this really happened? Well, it doesn't matter what it looks like because you wouldn't see anything except for a gleam of light that would blind your eyes. The first thing it would do if it had contact with the earth is that it would cut through the ozone layer. If you think that's okay, think again. The ozone layer is like our shield. It protects us from all that radtiation we get from the sun and all those harmful lights. So this GRB will take down the earth's ozone layer in less than 5 seconds. Once we lost the ozone layer, we are officially doomed, our protection; defenses are all wiped out. The second step: Since it cut through the ozone layer, it will wipe out all the other atmospheres protecting the earth to get to us. In about milliseconds it would reach about sky level and burn the whole face of the earth in about a couple of hours. First you might think it was a little high temperature and a light tan. Then it becomes gradually hotter and brighter. That is when you start to panic. After it breaks through. It would make a devastating force and wipe out absolutely anything on the surface and about anything else underneath in about 30 days. So there is pretty much there is no escape at all. Only if you could dig a hole deep enough, and as fast as you can. All creatures and plants would die because of the radiation and we would soon die because the radiation caused by the GRB would stop all our intestines our lungs from working so we could not digest or eat anything. The only animals that might survive are the tiny micro probes that live deep under earth's surface. So, there still would be life on earth but the thing is, if we do repopulate the earth again like we did in the past, it would not be us who are the leaders. It would be bacteria who would rule the world.
That is the power of a Gamma Ray Burst. We have seen how it is created all the way to its end. The biggest explosion in the world are still yet to be studied more. You have witnessed what would happen if one struck our own planet and the result of chaos. Now we move on to part 2 of the death of a star. Something so large and invisible that only recently scientist have figured out what it could do to earth. Something so powerful that even light cannot escape...Alpha Centauri has been alive for more than a couple of billion years. Yes it is a very old star and people will think what is so bad about that. it's not about how far away it is, it's about what the power of the star is. you see when stars are at their old age. You see the death of a star goes like this: it is born, then it grows and it dies depending on the mass of the star. The mass of Alpha Centauri is somewhere 3 times the mass of the sun and that means, it's is going to have a very catastrophic death. You see, a star that big would probably have it's fate like this: It starts its ending as a Red Super giant, then it explodes and causes the supernova. Now the gamma-ray burst (GRB) is the intense radiation from the beams and energy from the supernova that are released. A GRB can stretch as far as 8.2 light years away. It would knock out anything in its path and leave a road of destruction. So what if the scientests and the news tells you that today Alpha Centauri exploded? Well, don't panic then, it will take about a decade for us to actually witness the affect. We couldn't see it from earth or anything. All we could see is through a telescope, a bright light not that very big at all. So, if you just wait for a while may be 10-15 years or longer, you would see the result in the explosion of the GRB. That it would make a devastating blast of radiation that could burn our planet like a piece of toast. Temperature would be rising up to the highest temperatures in the history of the earth. They are the hottest, brightest thing you will ever see in your life. It's as big as an explosion could get. Don't dream about an atomic bomb. Think billions times that.
So what if all of this really happened? Well, it doesn't matter what it looks like because you wouldn't see anything except for a gleam of light that would blind your eyes. The first thing it would do if it had contact with the earth is that it would cut through the ozone layer. If you think that's okay, think again. The ozone layer is like our shield. It protects us from all that radtiation we get from the sun and all those harmful lights. So this GRB will take down the earth's ozone layer in less than 5 seconds. Once we lost the ozone layer, we are officially doomed, our protection; defenses are all wiped out. The second step: Since it cut through the ozone layer, it will wipe out all the other atmospheres protecting the earth to get to us. In about milliseconds it would reach about sky level and burn the whole face of the earth in about a couple of hours. First you might think it was a little high temperature and a light tan. Then it becomes gradually hotter and brighter. That is when you start to panic. After it breaks through. It would make a devastating force and wipe out absolutely anything on the surface and about anything else underneath in about 30 days. So there is pretty much there is no escape at all. Only if you could dig a hole deep enough, and as fast as you can. All creatures and plants would die because of the radiation and we would soon die because the radiation caused by the GRB would stop all our intestines our lungs from working so we could not digest or eat anything. The only animals that might survive are the tiny micro probes that live deep under earth's surface. So, there still would be life on earth but the thing is, if we do repopulate the earth again like we did in the past, it would not be us who are the leaders. It would be bacteria who would rule the world.
***Stay tuned on my blog for part 2 of the death of a star coming soon***
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(please rate and comment too! Thanks!)
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