Take cover Andromeda's coming.

[soup dragon]

Originally Posted by frogstamper

Well not just yet anyway, but our own galaxy the Milky Way and our nearest galactic neighbour Andromeda are currently on a collision course speeding towards each other at 120 kilometers a second.

Admittedly this will not happen for another 2 billion years, but it will happen. Will humanity still be around? if so they will hopefully have found a new home by then, if not its curtains.

PS Beam me up Scotty!


http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...m-home&ref=rss

strangely enough i went to the new planetarium at Intech on friday and was told the exact same thing during on e of the shows. Very good if you live in the south of england by the way!

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by Mick

They say there is quite a few astronomical events that could wipe out life on Earth. It's up to us if we believe them or not.

If your worried about big celestial bodies hitting us - fear this monster if it ever came our way its in this galaxy:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7hsQA3wo3Q

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VV_Cephei

On the Wiki page you can see its size in comparison to our own Sun.

The shear size of Cepheus's in comparison to our own Sun is incredible, like a grain of sand compared to a football. But if the Earth does survive the Andromeda event, we can look forward to our own Sun expanding into a red giant, apparently Mercury and Venus will be engulfed and the Earth rendered uninhabitable due to the extreme heat, but we have some time yet, about 6 billion years.

[TheBlueRaja]

Originally Posted by frogstamper

The shear size of Cepheus's in comparison to our own Sun is incredible, like a grain of sand compared to a football. But if the Earth does survive the Andromeda event, we can look forward to our own Sun expanding into a red giant, apparently Mercury and Venus will be engulfed and the Earth rendered uninhabitable due to the extreme heat, but we have some time yet, about 6 billion years.

No necessarily so, its not "theoretically" that hard to change the orbit of the earth by shunting a reasonably large object into an earth orbit and pulling earth further away from the sun by using its gravity to alter our orbit. Then its simply a matter of building a Dyson sphere, emigrating and hey, bobs your uncle, were alright but the earth might get a bit nippy.

I'd expect that to be a piece of pie in 6 billion years, should buy us a wee bit longer before the sun, well, dies.

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by TheBlueRaja

No necessarily so, its not "theoretically" that hard to change the orbit of the earth by shunting a reasonably large object into an earth orbit and pulling earth further away from the sun by using its gravity to alter our orbit. Then its simply a matter of building a Dyson sphere, emigrating and hey, bobs your uncle, were alright but the earth might get a bit nippy.

I'd expect that to be a piece of pie in 6 billion years, should buy us a wee bit longer before the sun, well, dies.

Of course, I forgot about the possibility of a "Dyson Sphere", [like the one Scotty crashed into] the only problem at present is to get Mr Dyson away from vacuum cleaners, and get him to think a "bit" bigger Who knows it could well be one of his descendants that is predestined to save the human race.

[boroboi]

Originally Posted by TheBlueRaja

No necessarily so, its not "theoretically" that hard to change the orbit of the earth by shunting a reasonably large object into an earth orbit and pulling earth further away from the sun by using its gravity to alter our orbit. Then its simply a matter of building a Dyson sphere, emigrating and hey, bobs your uncle, were alright but the earth might get a bit nippy.

I'd expect that to be a piece of pie in 6 billion years, should buy us a wee bit longer before the sun, well, dies.

That being said, you'd want to build a dyson's sphere around a healthy star, not a dying star. Cirtainly not a red giant.

[TheBlueRaja]

Originally Posted by boroboi

That being said, you'd want to build a dyson's sphere around a healthy star, not a dying star. Cirtainly not a red giant.

A dying star would be fine, you'd be able to suck it dry for good few thousand years.

You obviously want it AFTER its became a red giant though hence shifting earth orbit.

[frogstamper]

Here's Sir James Dyson, possibly working on a prelude to the "Dyson Sphere"

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by frogstamper

The shear size of Cepheus's in comparison to our own Sun is incredible, like a grain of sand compared to a football. But if the Earth does survive the Andromeda event, we can look forward to our own Sun expanding into a red giant, apparently Mercury and Venus will be engulfed and the Earth rendered uninhabitable due to the extreme heat, but we have some time yet, about 6 billion years.

So I've got time for another cup of tea then?

[frogstamper]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

So I've got time for another cup of tea then?

A quick one Xaccers.

[boroboi]

Originally Posted by TheBlueRaja

A dying star would be fine, you'd be able to suck it dry for good few thousand years.

You obviously want it AFTER its became a red giant though hence shifting earth orbit.

Well, the reasoning behind Dyson's theory was that you would live on the inside surface of the sphere, being able to consume all of the energy the star gives out.

Building such a structure only for the star to expand and die in such a short space of time means you've got a giant sphere and a dead planet, what a waste. In the case of shifting the earth's orbit, there would be no need for a Sphere. Surely if we ever had the technology to build such a structure, we'd do it around a star we could live with rather than one with such a small life expectancy and one we could surely suck dry for as much time as we needed.

Or a Ringworld

[TheBlueRaja]

Originally Posted by boroboi

Well, the reasoning behind Dyson's theory was that you would live on the inside surface of the sphere, being able to consume all of the energy the star gives out.

Building such a structure only for the star to expand and die in such a short space of time means you've got a giant sphere and a dead planet, what a waste. In the case of shifting the earth's orbit, there would be no need for a Sphere. Surely if we ever had the technology to build such a structure, we'd do it around a star we could live with rather than one with such a small life expectancy and one we could surely suck dry for as much time as we needed.

I think you need to understand that a "short time" in terms of a dying sun is actually a very long time in human terms.

Originally Posted by TheBlueRaja

I think you need to understand that a "short time" in terms of a dying sun is actually a very long time in human terms.

true, but the diameter of the sun apropos the radiated energy & the conceivable structure which could be assembled to receive it, is also important - the references to 'Ringworld' are moot, as Larry Niven did try to get his head round the concept - at the same time as inventing Rishathra

[boroboi]

Originally Posted by TheBlueRaja

I think you need to understand that a "short time" in terms of a dying sun is actually a very long time in human terms.

Not if you consider the amount of time it would take to actually contruct the sphere, that alone would probably take centuries in itself given the level of technology at the time.

Building a Dyson sphere around a dying star would be the same as living on a planet around a dying star. Suicide. The surface of the sphere would still have to be within the habitable zone and would be just as susceptable to the unstable nature of a star turning red giant. Its not practical, and it serves no purpose, which is why one would construct one around a healthy star, much like our own today.

[CrowmanUK]

Bloody hell and there was me just worrying about planetx and the reptile invasion thats due in 2012

http://projectcamelot.org/norway.html