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emmett | 7 years ago

I’m not enough of an astrophysicist to do this math myself, but what would this kind of burst look like from Earth? Observable w a telescope? W the naked eye? Enter a bomb shelter and save yourself?

discuss

order

ChuckMcM|7 years ago

It could put on a nice show as one did for Kepler (https://astrobob.areavoices.com/2013/03/24/hey-where-are-all...) but generally it wouldn't be much more than a curiosity for non-astronomers[1].

If it does generate a gamma ray burst, then that is a more interesting phenomena. Depending on whether or not it is pointed in our direction, we might see more or less energy from it directly. After travelling 8000 light years and passing through all the dust between us and the planet, it would be seriously attenuated and unlikely to cause any destruction or even noticeable effects on earth.

[1] Astrologers on the other hand, it could be the sign that the end of the world is nigh :-)

dougmwne|7 years ago

It's been suggested that a gamma ray burst close enough to earth could cause a mass extinction and may have done so in the past.

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004IJAsB...3...55M

mannykannot|7 years ago

About 5 years ago, it was being suggested that the Wolf-Rayet star WR 104 might cause a dangerous gamma-ray burst when it goes supernova, but these things are highly directional, and I think the current consensus is that it is not aligned closely enough to be harmful. Apep is at a similar distance (~8,000 light years), and the article seems to be suggesting it will likely be more powerful than WR 104 is expected to be, but there is at least one news article is claiming that it is probably not pointed at us.

https://newatlas.com/gamma-ray-burst-star-supernova/57308/

(On looking into this, I began to think that Apep and WR104 might be the same thing, but they have different locations.)

skykooler|7 years ago

This star system is about 8000 light-years away. For comparison, in 1572 a different star, also about 8000 light-years away, was observed to go supernova. At its brightest, it was reported to be about as bright as Venus. This supernova would probably reach similar brightness levels.

francisofascii|7 years ago

Interesting story. You have to wonder if the "Christmas" star was a supernova like this one. It suddenly appears, becomes visible during the day for a few weeks, then slowly vanishes for about a year.