Cosmic Cannon: How an Exploding Star Could Fry Earth

   "Shooting out jets of energy or blobs of stuff the size of Earth
   at nearly light-speed, exploding stars called supernovae may
   hold more potential peril than anyone had ever imagined,
   according to a growing suspicion among some researchers.

   While scientists have long tried to link supernovae to mass
   extinctions on Earth, there is no solid evidence. But recent
   observations of high-energy emissions in space have some
   scientists suggesting that our planet may in fact get fried
   every now and then.

   For three decades, scientists have been puzzling over brief 
   but intense flashes of energy known as gamma ray bursts.
   These GRBs, as they are called, pack more punch than any other
   cosmic event. Their source has been a mystery, but so far they 
   have been observed only coming from the far corners of the
   cosmos.

   But for the past three years, increasing evidence has linked
   GRBs to supernovae, a far more common event. The latest
   thinking, though controversial, goes like this: 

   A giant aged star casts off its outer shell in a last gasp that
   sends a bubble of matter and energy racing outward. The rest
   of the star's matter implodes. 

   Jets of material, or perhaps individual blobs of matter, are
   later hurled in two opposite directions, at nearly the speed of
   light, along the axis of the rotating stellar corpse. These
   expulsions pierce the supernova's original expanding bubble,
   generating a flash of high-energy radiation known as gamma
   rays.

   If the jets or blobs happen to be pointed our way, we see the
   event. And if one were to be generated nearby in our galaxy
   and were directed at Earth, some scientists say the planet
   could be toast"
                   
                  . . . . . 

   Still, NASA scientists acknowledge the threat, describing it
   this way on a GRB informational Web page:

   "A gamma ray burst originating in our neck of the Milky Way,
   within a thousand light-years or so, could lead to mass
   extinction on Earth. Gamma rays interacting in the Earth's
   atmosphere would burn away the ozone layer, allowing deadly
   ultraviolet radiation to penetrate through the atmosphere. The
   influx of radiation would lead to widespread cancer and other
   diseases."

                  , , , , ,

                  
   While most researchers imagine a supernova's expulsion as a
   jet of high-speed energy, a more fantastical idea conjures an
   image of a giant cosmic cannon lobbing Earth-sized globs of
   matter into space.

   The idea was developed by Arnon Dar of the Israel Institute of
   Technology and Alvaro De Rujula of CERN -- the European
   Organization for Nuclear Research. The genesis of their idea
   was published in Physical Review Letters in 1998 and was
   modified and updated last year.
 
   Dar said there is "a growing body of direct and indirect
   evidence" for the scenario. He added that such an event
   would occur in our galaxy and be pointed our way once every
   100 million years. Dar noted that the five greatest known
   mass extinctions on Earth are also separated by 100 million
   years, on average.
                  
   By Robert Roy Britt
   Senior Science Writer
   posted: 07:00 am ET
   19 June 2001

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/gammaray_bursts_010522-1.html
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   "Perceptions" note:

   Only now, five/six years after our initial announcement and 
   after more than four years of web publication, and about three 
   years after our offer of help to NASA : - see 

   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/footnotes2.html#Sorry
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/nblckhls.html#ha
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/jets.html
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/uchoose.html  
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/footnotes3.html 
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/radiation.html                          

   are the priests of "big science" coming round to our forecast
   scenarios - (because _their_ preferred options proved to be 
   invalid).

   We do _not_ expect due credit, or even attribution, because
   history tells us that the establishment always fights tooth-and-nail
   to hold on to the views of the incompetent 'elite' - 

   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/greatest.html
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/previous.html
   http://www.perceptions.couk.com/medical.htmlincompetent 

   and always insists on being "right" - even when it is wrong.

        ---------------------------------------------

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