In a Star's Final Days, Astronomers Hunt 'Signal of Impending Doom'

[n2doc]

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2011) — An otherwise nondescript binary star system in the Whirlpool Galaxy has brought astronomers tantalizingly close to their goal of observing a star just before it goes supernova.

The study, submitted in a paper to the Astrophysical Journal, provides the latest result from an Ohio State University galaxy survey underway with the Large Binocular Telescope, located in Arizona.

In the first survey of its kind, the researchers have been scanning 25 nearby galaxies for stars that brighten and dim in unusual ways, in order to catch a few that are about to meet their end. In the three years since the study began, this particular unnamed binary system in the Whirlpool Galaxy was the first among the stars they've cataloged to produce a supernova.

The astronomers were trying to find out if there are patterns of brightening or dimming that herald the end of a star's life. Instead, they saw one star in this binary system dim noticeably before the other one exploded in a supernova during the summer of 2011.

more

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111130142228.htm

[Tesha]

1. Interesting Sci-Fi plot idea?

1. Scientists discover a distinct signature of stars about to go (super)novae.

2. Scientists discover that Sol is exhibiting that exact pattern.

Tesha

[n2doc]

2. There was a Star Trek TNG episode about that

And I'm sure there have to be several others. There was even a good twilight zone episode about a gradually cooking earth, although we may get there just with global warming.....

[eppur_se_muova]

5. I refer you to Asimov's "The Currents of Space" ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Currents_of_Space

(OK, not Earth, but a human-inhabited planet)

[Motown_Johnny]

6. +1

for my favorite author



thanks for that

[dtexdem]

3. Interesting; but on a cosmological scale, "near death" could be a good many years.

How soon do they think "near" might be?

[Blue Owl]

4. I'm having an out-of-galaxy experience

n/t