NASA Has Figured Out How the World Will End- And It's Totally Terrifying.
Earth will ultimately be vaporized by a dead Sun. Mercifully, we won't be around to experience it.
(Meant only for thinkers, seekers and science- students; definitely not for the religious deaf and blind.)
The destruction of a solar system has been captured for the first time by astronomers who said the violent events provide a grim glimpse of Earth’s ultimate fate.
Images taken by NASA’s Kepler 2 space mission reveal the rocky remains of a world that is being torn apart as it spirals around a dead star, or white dwarf, in the constellation of Virgo, 570 light years from Earth.
Scientists spotted chunks of shredded planet swinging around the white dwarf every 4.5 to five hours, placing them in an orbit about 520,000 miles from the star, about twice the distance between the Earth and the moon.
“This is something no human has seen before,” said Andrew Vanderburg at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “We’re watching a solar system get destroyed.”
Sun-like stars are driven by nuclear reactions that transform hydrogen into helium. But when the hydrogen runs out, they burn heavier elements, such as helium, carbon and oxygen, and expand dramatically. Eventually, the star sheds its outer layers to leave an Earth-sized core known as a white dwarf.
Vanderburg’s team spotted the cosmic catastrophe with the Kepler 2 mission, which can detect the existence of new planets by the telltale dimming they cause when they pass in front of their parent stars.
Instead of looking at sun-like stars, the scientists studied a white dwarf known in astronomical circles as WD1145+017. They found that every 4.5 hours, Kepler 2 detected a 40 percent drop in light from the star, as a chunk of material moved across its face.
Initial observations from Kepler were backed up with further measurements from other telescopes, including the Whipple Observatory in Massachusetts, the MEarth-South telescope in Chile and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Together, they found evidence for several lumps of rock in orbit around the dead star.
“We now have a smoking gun linking white dwarf pollution to the destruction of rocky planets,” Vanderburg said.
Astronomers are not clear where the rocky objects came from in the first place, but one possibility is that the star’s death destabilised the orbit of a neighboring massive planet in such a way that smaller rocky worlds were kicked towards the star. They get so close that the searing heat starts to vaporise them as the gravitational forces tear them apart.
A similar fate may well await our own solar system. When the sun dies in five billion years, it will expand and engulf the inner planets, toasting Mercury and Venus, and potentially Earth too. But if Earth survives that cosmic trauma, it may find itself being shredded as it spirals into the white dwarf that the sun becomes. “We might be seeing how our own solar system could be disassembled in the future,” said Vanderburg.
Francesca Faedi, an astronomer in the University of Warwick, said the death of the star Vanderburg’s team observed may have sent planets in the distant solar system crashing into one another, reducing them to rocks that resemble asteroids.
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The Pope arrives in heaven, where St. Peter awaits souls.
St. Peter asks who he is.
Pope: "I am the Pope."
St. Peter: "Who? There's no such name in my book."
Pope: "I'm the representative of God on Earth."
St. Peter: "Does God have a representative?
But he didn't tell me..."
Pope: "I am the leader of the Catholic Church..."
St. Peter: "The Catholic church...Never heard of it...
Wait, I'll check with the boss."
Pope: "That's the biggest church on the planet among innumerable
other little- known minuscule churches".
St. Peter walks away through Heaven's Gate to talk to God.
St. Peter: "There's a dude standing outside who claims he's your representative on earth."
God: "I don't have a representative on earth, not that I know of...
Wait, I'll ask Jesus." (calls out for Jesus)
Jesus: "Yes father, what's up?"
God and St. Peter explain the situation.
Jesus: "Wait, I'll go outside and have a chat with that fellow."
Ten minutes pass and Jesus re- enters laughing aloud.
After a few minutes St. Peter asks Jesus why he's laughing...
Jesus: "Remember that fishing club I started 2000 years ago?
It's still in operation!"
Thanks.
Pope: "I am the Pope."
St. Peter: "Who? There's no such name in my book."
Pope: "I'm the representative of God on Earth."
St. Peter: "Does God have a representative?
But he didn't tell me..."
Pope: "I am the leader of the Catholic Church..."
St. Peter: "The Catholic church...Never heard of it...
Wait, I'll check with the boss."
Pope: "That's the biggest church on the planet among innumerable
other little- known minuscule churches".
St. Peter walks away through Heaven's Gate to talk to God.
St. Peter: "There's a dude standing outside who claims he's your representative on earth."
God: "I don't have a representative on earth, not that I know of...
Wait, I'll ask Jesus." (calls out for Jesus)
Jesus: "Yes father, what's up?"
God and St. Peter explain the situation.
Jesus: "Wait, I'll go outside and have a chat with that fellow."
Ten minutes pass and Jesus re- enters laughing aloud.
After a few minutes St. Peter asks Jesus why he's laughing...
Jesus: "Remember that fishing club I started 2000 years ago?
It's still in operation!"
Thanks.
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I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as the fingerprint and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service- helping out the needy and the less fortunate. Then work hard and allow the energy of the universe to lead you...
On the other hand there are religious goofs trying to subvert the cosmic energy by falsely introducing inundated concepts on which the edifice of present day fanaticism and fascism are built. History will not forgive those counterfeits.
---To err is only human for them but to forgive is not their policy, and so---
On the other hand there are religious goofs trying to subvert the cosmic energy by falsely introducing inundated concepts on which the edifice of present day fanaticism and fascism are built. History will not forgive those counterfeits.
---To err is only human for them but to forgive is not their policy, and so---
"I went to an Inter-Faith Integration Seminar. The bishop came, laid his hands on my hand and prayed, "By the will of Jesus Christ, you will walk today!" I smiled and told him I am not paralyzed. The Buddhist Monk came, held my hands and declared, "By the will of the great Buddha, you will walk today!" I was less than amused when I told him there is nothing wrong with me. The Mullah came, snatched my hands and said, "Insha Allah, you will walk today!" I snapped at him, "There's nothing wrong with me!" After the Seminar, I stepped outside and found my new car having been stolen. Now I believe in the equality of all religions!"
