Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
RECENT POSTS
- Mars Rover: Stuck in the Mud
- Tranquility Base
- NASA's Ares 1-X Test: The View From Above
- The Yes Men
- The Missing Link -- Not
- Moon Crash Kicked Up Plume After All
- Moon Crash: Where's the Water?
- Green Apple: Firm is Latest to Leave U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- Recovery.gov: Your Tax Dollars at Work
- Climate: Power Companies Quit U.S Chamber of Commerce
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
End of the World--or Maybe Not
September 12, 2007 3:50 PM
In about five billion years, current thinking goes, the Sun will use up the hydrogen that fuels it and expand into a red giant, 100 times larger in diameter than it is today. In the process, Mercury, Venus, and possibly Earth will be consumed--burned to cinders and then swallowed by the giant, aging star that used to nurture us.
So the clock is ticking. Only five billion years to go? I remember being really bummed out when I first heard this as a kid, not understanding that five billion years is a really, really long time.
But maybe there's hope. In Thursday's edition of NATURE, Roberto R. Silvotti of Italy's Istituto Nazionale de Astrofisica reports, along with 20 colleagues, that he's found a planet, 4,500 light-years away, orbiting a star that went through the same cataclysm--and yet the planet is still there.
The star, known as V 391 Pegasi, was probably quite similar to our sun at one time, and the newly-found planet, though much larger, was almost exactly as far away from it as we are from our sun.
But something happened. For reasons the researchers say they do not understand, V 391 Pegasi lost much of its mass as a red giant. A star with less mass exerts less gravity, so its planet drifted into a more distant orbit, about 160 million miles away (we're 93 million miles away from our Sun). It survived, and the researchers, who were looking at the star for other reasons, stumbled upon it.
What does this mean to us earthlings? Maybe--hardly certain, but maybe--our planet will have the same luck.
Reuters spoke to Don Kurtz of the University of Lancashire, who was on the research team. "The future of the Earth is to die with the sun boiling up the oceans, but the hot rock will survive," he said.
I feel much better now, and I hope you do too.
(Artist's conception of V 391 Pegasi and its planet by Mark Garlick. Copyright HELAS. Used by permission from NATURE.)
September 12, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (10)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
wow!!!!!!!!! sounds almost impossible
Posted by: katie | Sep 12, 2007 9:22:04 PM
I don't feel at all better, Ned, despite the reassurances of the scientists investigating V 391 Pegasi. You see, I've been losing sleep over the impending collision of galaxies you told us about a while ago. Now I simply have even more to worry about, especially wondering which will happen first: our sun going supernova, or our galaxy crashing into another. I've finally realized that knowledge isn't power, it's just more insecurity!
Posted by: chuck | Sep 13, 2007 9:14:25 AM
I wonder why Ned keeps torturing us with these little glimpses of impending doom. It's bad enough that we still have to worry about the end of the Mayan calendar in 5 years. Now, we also have to worry about a galactic collision and the death of our sun. Well, the upside will be no more skin cancer.
Posted by: Andy | Sep 13, 2007 10:50:07 AM
Andy, the downside of all this could be a really bad sunburn, though. And thanks for the reminder about the Mayan calendar's "end of days"--just one more thing to worry about. ARRGH!
Posted by: chuck | Sep 13, 2007 12:13:48 PM
Man, I've missed much. End of days, Galactic collisions, and now our sun swelling. You're right Chuck, knowlegde isn't power. It is more insecurity. And skin cancer is the least of our worries Andy. Lets have a happy story. Something about puppies. That should be good to ease the worrying.
Posted by: Lawrence | Sep 14, 2007 8:58:06 AM
Lawrence, you're absolutely right! I could use a happy story about puppies right now!
Posted by: chuck | Sep 14, 2007 9:10:09 AM
Chuck and Lawrence, you're both wide open for a big bucket of cold water. What do you think will happen to all those puppies when it all starts to go bad? Incidentally, if you have a fire, call me. I'll throw a wet blanket on it.
Posted by: Andy | Sep 14, 2007 10:52:28 AM
OK, Andy, I'll remember you this way from now on: Andy = wet blanket.
Posted by: chuck | Sep 14, 2007 12:08:38 PM
Thanks, Chuck. And I thought I wouldn't leave any footprints in the sands of time.
I would like to hang around and view the end, though.
Posted by: Andy | Sep 20, 2007 11:06:54 AM
wow.. thATS INTresting
Posted by: eva | Sep 27, 2007 5:29:34 PM
Post a comment
