The Sun Will Explode In Less Than Six Years

[FreeUS]

The Sun is overheating and will soon blow up . . . taking Earth and the rest of the solar system with it, scientists warn.
The alert was issued after an international satellite photographed a massive explosion on the surface of the Sun that sent a plume of fire 30 times longer than the diameter of Earth blasting into space.
"It's a sign that the Sun is ready to blow . . . I don't know if I can put it any more plainly than that," says Dutch astrophysicist Dr. Piers Van der Meer, a top expert affiliated with the European Space Agency.
"It will be like a nuclear bomb trillions of times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima going off at the center of our solar system.
"When that happens Earth will be instantly incinerated along with all life on it. It's like when a marshmallow falls into a fire, blackens and melts."
Scientists say the problem is the Sun is literally getting too hot.
The core temperature of the Sun is normally 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. But in recent years it's climbed to an alarming 49 million degrees, says Dr. Van der Meer, leader of a team of Amsterdam-based space scientists who've been tracking the changes in the Sun.
"It's quite similar to when a star goes supernova at the end of its life," Dr. Van der Meer explains. "Over the past 11 years, we've seen our Sun go through changes frighteningly like those that took place in Kepler's Star right before it was observed going supernova in 1604."
Temperatures on the surface of the Sun have been steadily climbing over the past decade, the scientists say.
"This, we believe, not man-made pollution, is responsible for global warming and the alarming effects that we've seen take place on Earth such as the melt-down of the Antarctic ice shelves," asserted Dr. Van der Meer.
The July 1 images were taken by the space-based Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a satellite designed to study the internal structure of the Sun and operated jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency.
"The explosion . . . known technically as an eruptive prominence . . . was colossal," said Dr. Van der Meer. "This is the final warning sign we've all been dreading."
The Dutch scientists calculate that if temperatures keep climbing at the current rate the Sun will be unable to sustain itself.
"It will blow apart like an out-of-control nuclear reactor within six years," predicts Dr. Van der Meer.
NASA refuses to confirm the Euro-pean scientists' assertions and a White House source said, "We don't need anyone spreading more panic now."

[M31]

Doah !

Calm down everyone.

First, the sun is too small to ever go supernova, so the basic premise of the article is incorrect. There just isn't enough mass in our sun to cause it to explode and collapse to form a neutron star or black hole.

Also, I haven't been able to find out any information on this guy "Dr. Piers Van der Meer". There's an online database, called the Astrophysics Data System, that keeps records of Journal articles published in astronomy/astrophysics/planetary science. Even beginning graduate students will show up in the records because they've usually been to at least one conference, and as soon as you have a couple papers about your reaserch it's easy to find out what you're doing and where you work. But this person doesn't show up in the system at all! I looked him up using a search engine and he doesn't seem to have a web page affiliated with any organization. So if he's a serious astrophysicist, he hasn't published papers or appeared at conferences before, and isn't part of a major organization.

Also, the article claims he's associated with the European Space Agency (ESA) (which is a real, credible organization), but when you look at their website there's no mention of this press release at all. So it's not endorsed by them, apparently.

The article was also written for "Weekly World News", which is one of those papers that tends to publish half-truths, or distort the truth to get a sensationalistic story. And there are some truths to the story. For example, SOHO is a satellite that is run jointly by ESA and NASA, and it does take images of giant flares and prominences, which are like giant explosions on the sun. Flares and prominences happen all the time, and although they may cause aurorae or interfere with communications, they're really not a big deal. SOHO has lots of cool images; you can check them out at the SOHO website. Notice they don't say anything about the sun exploding either.

It's also true that the temperature at the center of the sun is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, but the sun is not increasing in temperature over the long term; it's actually decreasing a bit as it ages. Also, the article claims that they measured trends "in recent years", which (besides being vague) is a very short time in the life of the sun. Temperature measurements over a few years really won't tell you anything about the long term behavior of the sun.

So, I think what happened is that Weekly World News pieced together some truths and found some person willing to add a few extra things to make the story exciting. It's certainly not credible astrophysics!





Last edited by M31 at Oct 12 2002, 09:47 PM

[FreeUS]

Yes, I was thinking the same. The work of that Dr. Van der Meer isn't available... And like you said, there is an database online where records articles about astrophysics (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html), and there is nothing about that...

[M31]

Yeah Free US I think the good Dr is a crank.

However, a far more interesting debate would be to consider how long we may feel the human race will last. I think the human species has probably got less than 1 million years left if that. Heres why I think so;

1. In terms of the age of this planet we havent been around that long so we are part of the earths cycle of development.

2. We are ferocious consumers of earths finite resources, ie we extract from the sea 10,0000 x what can be replaced, oil, water etc.

3. We are phenomenal polluters of earth.

4. The imbalance in the human race Northern and Southern hemisphere is a strong indicator to me of the inability of the human race to be able to sustain itself in the long term.

My observations are anecdotal and I do hope that I am way off the mark.



Last edited by M31 at Oct 13 2002, 03:08 PM

[unicorn]

Quote:

Originally posted by M31@Oct 13 2002, 05:07 PM
My observations are anecdotal and I do hope that I am way off the mark.

I'm afraid you are not.
The human being appearently is incapable of solving any of all the major problems we are facing. I should say a million years is a *very* optimistic prediction.
And why not be optimistic? It's the only psycological defense we have - denying. We can see our political and/or economical leaders in practise look another way every time the big problems are discussed. We are still shooting and bombing each other, some people get disturbed by the fact that a human moves from one part of the word to another.

I give Earth and civilized life a miximum of 200 or 300 years.

Sorry.

[FreeUS]

the Natural resources leave finish many before 2050... Remember what I say...

Sorry...

[unicorn]

I'll continue this pessimistic, take it just a little bit down the road:
Among all the natural resources that will be valuable (in a way we aren't used to yet) is: water.
I wouldn't get to surprised if the next war (larger scale) will take it's start about water. Then we'll have a situation that is partly new (of modern time) and that is a war about possibilities to survive. This of course might take other forms than wars about religion, oil and stuff that make the "winner" more rich.

Now I'm close to 100% sure it will go this bad. Anyone able to enlighten me and make me see theese questions in other ways is most welcome to do so!