Lethal gamma-ray burst from star WR 104 could reach earth - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Map in a box;40809822]It wouldn't just last for one second.[/QUOTE] That's what I said to my ex-wife *BADDUM PISH*

Just one more reminder that we are an insignificant dot on an insignificant dot being obscured by an insignificant dot. In relative terms, we're a tiny insect hitching a ride on the craggy hide of the universe. If it wanted to kill us, it could do so with barely a thought. Mostly, it just ignores us as long as we don't do something to piss it off. Good thing we're so small that we couldn't do that if we tried.

I dunno whats to be anxious about lol As far as "ways to die early" you are more likely to be singled out by lightning in an area with lots of cover and lightning poles than dieing via vacuum instability events Besides as far as "ways to die early" go, a vacuum instability event is vastly preferred to any other way to die. You'd simply cease to exist the moment the bubble would hit us, and you wouldn't even know since it's going at nearly the speed of light. An explosion that completely disenegrates you would be less instant than that, and that's about the most instant/painless way to go. As a bonus, everyone you know and love would also cease to exist, so there's no pain of leaving behind loved ones or a wasted life/future, as everything you know stops existing too! I mean, I'd rather suddenly pop out of existence with no pain or suffering than die via blood loss, drowning, fire, etc. That's the nice thing about cosmic extinction is that it's merciful and gives you a quick painless death, and takes out everyone else too so you don't even have to worry about mental and emotional fallout of people who know you.

[quote]tomorrow to 500,000 years from now[/quote] I can't remember where I saw it, but there's some rule of thumb that says that if the end of the world is predicted somewhere along a long timeline, the most likely point for humanity's end would be at the center. So in all probability, we wouldn't be hit by the thing until 250k years from now, if we're even hit at all.

[QUOTE=KorJax;40814521]I dunno whats to be anxious about lol As far as "ways to die early" you are more likely to be singled out by lightning in an area with lots of cover and lightning poles than dieing via vacuum instability events Besides as far as "ways to die early" go, a vacuum instability event is vastly preferred to any other way to die. You'd simply cease to exist the moment the bubble would hit us, and you wouldn't even know since it's going at nearly the speed of light. An explosion that completely disenegrates you would be less instant than that, and that's about the most instant/painless way to go. As a bonus, everyone you know and love would also cease to exist, so there's no pain of leaving behind loved ones or a wasted life/future, as everything you know stops existing too! I mean, I'd rather suddenly pop out of existence with no pain or suffering than die via blood loss, drowning, fire, etc. That's the nice thing about cosmic extinction is that it's merciful and gives you a quick painless death, and takes out everyone else too so you don't even have to worry about mental and emotional fallout of people who know you.[/QUOTE] I don't think you can claim to know the probability of a vacuum instability event.

[QUOTE=Falubii;40814644]I don't think you can claim to know the probability of a vacuum instability event.[/QUOTE] Just like you can't claim to KNOW the probability of being hit by a bus, but you can make a pretty good approximation. Obviously as time proceeds, the chance of it occuring approach 0 more and more, as the fact that it hasn't happened causes the probability to go down at a next time interval; but, assuming t=inf, the probability goes to 100%, assuming space isn't stable; which depends on the type of space we actually happen to be in. [url]http://www.lns.cornell.edu/Events/ParticleTheory/rsrc/LEPP/Events/ParticleTheory/WebHome/StabilityofdeSitter.pdf[/url]

Errr, some of you are misunderstanding what is a light year? No 8k light-year doesn't mean 8k earth years. A light year is the distance that light travels in a YEAR. So 8k light-year is the distance of the light that travels in 8.000 years. Which is like .. 1 light-year = 9.460.730.472.580.800 metres (exactly) That means.. 8k light-years = 2.400.000.000 KMs.

I remember reading that if a gamma-ray burst hits Earth, it would convert some of the atmosphere to nitrous oxide AKA laughing gas. So at least it'd be pretty frigging hilarious before you died :v:

It would be funny for the survivors. If you get hit. bye bye baby

[QUOTE=EpikMonster;40816213]Errr, some of you are misunderstanding what is a light year? No 8k light-year doesn't mean 8k earth years. A light year is the distance that light travels in a YEAR. So 8k light-year is the distance of the light that travels in 8.000 years. Which is like .. 1 light-year = 9.460.730.472.580.800 metres (exactly) That means.. 8k light-years = 2.400.000.000 KMs.[/QUOTE] the radiation travels at the speed of light though

[QUOTE=EpikMonster;40816213]Errr, some of you are misunderstanding what is a light year? No 8k light-year doesn't mean 8k earth years. A light year is the distance that light travels in a YEAR. So 8k light-year is the distance of the light that travels in 8.000 years. Which is like .. 1 light-year = 9.460.730.472.580.800 metres (exactly) That means.. 8k light-years = 2.400.000.000 KMs.[/QUOTE] The thing is though, it could of already fired and we won't be able to notice it before it hits us because its going at the speed of light.

EH, just wear some sunblock, itll be fine.

What if you're allergic to sunblock?

[QUOTE=Map in a box;40817265]What if you're allergic to sunblock?[/QUOTE] I suppose future generations won't have to worry about that then

How close is 'nearly' the speed of light? Say you had a vacuum metastability event that was really far, far, away. Would there be minutes or hours in which the new universe could be seen? Why is an anti-de Sitter space (what is this?) unsurvivable?

[QUOTE=tr00per7;40817241]EH, just wear some sunblock, itll be fine.[/QUOTE] I don't think Coppertone sells full body armor made of two inch thick lead.

[QUOTE=Krinkels;40817699]How close is 'nearly' the speed of light? Say you had a vacuum metastability event that was really far, far, away. Would there be minutes or hours in which the new universe could be seen? Why is an anti-de Sitter space (what is this?) unsurvivable?[/QUOTE] Depending on how far away it is, that 0.99c speed might make a big difference. I have no idea of the mechanics behind it, but if it does move slower than light we'd probably be able to see it (or if it doesn't give off and/or reflect photons, we'd see a big pitch black sphere that expands destroying everything).

Well that's depressing. I hope the news site is just exaggerating as usual..

[QUOTE=Chocolate1234;40818281]Well that's depressing. I hope the news site is just exaggerating as usual..[/QUOTE] They are. Even if they weren't, there is nothing we can do (for now) so why worry

Quick, build a Death Star. Let us strike first.

[QUOTE=Mingebox;40817987]I don't think Coppertone sells full body armor made of two inch thick lead.[/QUOTE] uh yeah they do, where have you been?

[QUOTE=PelPix123;40818915]From where, the center of the Universe?[/QUOTE] Somewhere. I'm not sure. The universe doesn't have a center. [QUOTE=PelPix123;40818915]If that ever happened, since the bubble is moving so slow (only the speed of light), wouldn't it take billions and billions of years for it to reach us even AFTER the universe jumped down to the actual vacuum state?[/QUOTE] Yeah. Depending on how far away it begins.

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;40809469] Google "vacuum metastability event." Nature is a dick.[/QUOTE] This took me to a cracked article on 7 ways the universe can kill us at any moment you never said anything about SEVEN!!!

We're boned

Considering I have no idea about what happens after death I might have been hit by such an event many times in the past.

[QUOTE=download;40809205]That's how it works with all radiation, you can't completely block it, just attenuate it[/QUOTE] Except even just a small sheet of paper can shield from Alpha Particle Radiation.

let's just hope we turn into hulk first

as a kid that just woke up in the middle of night and ate two cola flavoured ice pops and is now going to sleep listening to led zeppelin, that shit definitely ain't gon' 'appen. You heard here first folks, im a natural born scientist.

[QUOTE=TorrentR;40812338]I guess I should trust you. After all, you're a weed-smoking frog.[/QUOTE] Is a frog's opinion less valid than a toads?

[QUOTE=Diago21;40810537]Laymen terms please, I've googled it and still don't quite understand it.[/QUOTE] I know I'm kind of late, but I'm going to give explaining this in really simple terms a try. Imagine any empty spot in space. It's not really empty, there's a tiny bit of energy just sitting there in what to us looks like empty space. You could imagine this as table with a table cloth over it, but the tablecloth is held up by hundreds of little pegs sitting in little slots in the table. There's some plates set up for people to eat at. These table settings represent the basic laws of the universe, like gravity and electricity. There's also food on the table, which represents matter an everything actually in the universe. Here's an image that represents this: [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Falsevacuum.svg/240px-Falsevacuum.svg.png[/img] The pegs will stay in place on their own, but for some reason something happening on top of the cloth knocks one of the pegs loose. This would be represented on the chart as the little ball being moved over the hump and falling into the lower pit. Now that one peg has fallen over, the cloth starts to slump in, and in the process tension is created in the cloth that knocks other pegs over. This chain reaction causes a big wave of pegs falling over. All of the table settings and food get jumbled up in a way that is "normal" for table when the pegs have fallen. Your very carefully constructed meal is now unrecognizable and the food has turned into something else entirely inedible. Although to some alien it might now look like a normal meal, the table underneath the pegs wasn't flat, but was curved like a giant bowl so the cloth and everthing on it fall into the middle and then end up all squishing together and more or less turing into a blackhole. For a less accurate analogy that could give a quicker grasp of how it works, imagine building a house in the middle of a frozen lake. You think it's solid, and because it's always below freezing where this lake is the lake always stays frozen. You don't know how frozen water works, so you think it's just solid ground. Out on the lake somewhere, something happens that causes the lake to break open. The ice, unfortunately, is not that great at holding together and so the fracture spreads, causing the entire ice shell to fall into the water, including your house. Everything sinks to the bottom and is now in water, not air. Your house gets smashed up, and your drown. Then the lake and everything in it evaporates into nothing.