科學家：致命恆星船底座伊塔星明年可能殺絕人類

Trailers Montage - Eta Carinae Hybrid
蒙太奇預告片 - 船底座伊塔星的混合
2011-08-22

Carina Nebula in 60 Seconds (Standard Definition)
船底座星雲60秒（標準定義）
2011-06-13

科學家：致命恆星明年可能殺絕人類
Scientists: Deadly Star Could Kill Humanity Next Year
2011年10月19日 上午 02:20:37
Translation by Autumnson Blog

Star on verge of going hypernova could wipe out Earth life
在運轉中的亢奮新星的邊緣的恆星可消滅地球上的生命

It's name is Eta Carinae. It's a star—or to be absolutely accurate—a binary star. And it's getting ready to destroy anything within 50,000 light years of it...like Earth.
它的名字是船底座伊塔星，它是一顆恆星 - 或絕對準確地 - 雙星。和它準備去毀滅它5萬光年內的任何東西...像地球。
Although few have ever heard of Eta Carinae, if things go wrong—horribly wrong—it could be the final, gasping words spilling from the gnarled lips of the last dying humans on Earth.
雖然很少人曾聽說過的船底座伊塔星，如果出了問題 - 可怕地錯誤的 - 它可能是地球上最後死亡人類出自粗糙嘴唇的最終、氣喘的字。
Once and for all, Doomsday really will have arrived.
永遠地，末日真的將已抵達。
Although it might sound like some Grade-B Hollywood End-of-the-World thriller, the scenario is very real. All too real. And it's too close for comfort in more ways than one.
雖然聽起來像是荷里活B級世界末日驚悚片，場景是非常真實的，一切都太真實了，和它太接近要多於一種方式的安慰。

Death blow from space: deadly and merciless [NASA]
空間的致命一擊：致命和無情的 [美國宇航局]

殺手恆星
The killer star

If ever there was a ticking time bomb in our galaxy, it would be Eta Carinae—at least as far as life on Earth is concerned.
如果曾經有一個計時炸彈在我們的銀河系，它會是船底座伊塔星 - 至少對地球上的生命而言。
For Eta Carinae is a killer waiting to strike.
因為船底座伊塔星是一位等待攻擊的殺手。
But the truly horrifying reality is it may have struck already, and we don't even know it yet.
但真正可怕的現實是，它可能已經開始攻擊，而我們甚至不知道。
When pushed on the issue, all astronomers agree that Eta Carinae could easily destroy all life on Earth, or at the very least, the side facing the death star when its celestial greetings of doom come knocking on our door.
當推上這個議題，所有的天文學家都同意，船底座伊塔星可輕易地摧毀地球上的所有生命，或最起碼是，面對著死亡恆星的一邊，當它的天體厄運問候來到敲我們的大門。
When will that be? It's anyone's guess. Some scientists think it could be within our lifetimes, even as early as—dare it be said?—2012.
會是什麼時候？它是任何人的猜測。一些科學家認為，它可能在我們的有生之年，甚至早至 - 敢說是？- 2012年。

Astronomers: explosion precursor to going hypernova [CHANDRA]
天文學家：爆炸前兆對運轉中的亢奮新星[錢德拉]

終端計算
Terminal calculations
How dangerous is this unstable star?
這不穩定的恆星有多危險？
The calculations are in, and they're not looking good.
計算已到，及它們看來不妙。
Grim astronomers grudgingly admit that when the massive Eta Carinae detonates it could well be a hypernova, not a supernova. The terrible truth is, it's more likely than not to be a hypernova.
嚴峻的天文學家勉強承認，當大規模的船底座伊塔星引爆，它很可能是一顆亢奮新星，不是超新星。可怕的事實是，它更有可能不要是一顆亢奮新星。
What is a hypernova? It's an explosion that's also termed a type 1c Supernova that happens to hypergiant stars with a mass 100 to 300 times larger than the sun. When hypergiant stars explode they release incredible energy all at once—an explosion equivalent to 100 or more supernovae exploding simultaneously.

The killer star's light will be so intense it will be visible across millions of light years reaching to other galaxies. In fact, it might, for a time, outshine all the light generated by all the other stars in our own galaxy.

Eta Carinae: Earth will be collateral damage
船底座伊塔星：地球將是併行損傷

Eta Carinae will release off-the-scale gamma ray bursts. According to scientists, if that burst hits Earth the radiation flux at the fringe of our planet's atmosphere will equal a one kiloton nuclear explosion over every square mile that takes the direct hit.

Nothing can absorb such titanic fury. The total energy slamming Earth would be roughly 200 million kilotons. Next to that an all out thermonuclear war would look like a Fourth of July fireworks show.

Intense gamma ray burst hitting defenseless Earth
強烈的伽馬射線爆發打擊亳無防備的地球

飽和爆炸可使地球絕子絕孫
Saturation blast can sterilize Earth
A hypernova will create a lethality zone radiating outwards as far as 50,000 light years.

Unfortunately, the Earth is well within that death zone as the killer star lies only 7,500 light years away from us.

"Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe, capable of releasing as much energy as our sun would during its entire 10 billion-year lifetime in anywhere from milliseconds to a minute or more." [Wikipedia]

Scientists believe such massive bursts are the cause of some mass extinction events during the Earth's past.

A team led by astrophysicist Brian Thomas at Washburn University theorizes a hypernova might have initiated the Ordovician-Silurian mass erxtinctiopn event that occured about 440 million years ago.

Many researchers now believe that short, hard gamma ray blasts occur on average every 100 million years. If so, Earth has been hit by at least several during its 4.5 billion year existence. [Could Blasts from Cosmic Collisions Destroy Life on Earth?]

Right now, the killer star is radiating energy at a mind-boggling rate: 5 million times more than our sun. Because of its energy—like a gigantic fusion reactor gone wild—Eta Carinae is the brightest star in the Milky Way galaxy.

A supernova – Eta Cairnae's explosion will be much bigger [JPL]
一顆超新星 - 船底座伊塔星的爆炸將是更大的[噴氣推進實驗室]

It also dwarfs our star, which is tiny in comparison, for Eta Carinae is more than 100 times as massive as our sun.

一些專家怎說
What some experts say
Dave Pooley, at the University of California at Berkeley, says if Eta Carinae were observed to explode "it would be so bright that you would see it during the day, and you could even read a book by its light at night."

Of course, that assumes you're still alive.

Leading edge of killing gamma ray burst hits surface of Earth
殺人的伽瑪射線爆炸的領先邊緣擊中地球表面

Mario Livio, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland warns that Eta Carinae could be "seen to explode at any time." [BBC News]
Esteemed NASA scientist Stefan Immler at the Goddard Space Flight Center thinks Eta Carinae could very well explode in our lifetime, or even in the next few years.

Well, maybe Earth has a little more time, right? Well, maybe not.

Some astrophysicists at the European Space Agency have suggested it's quite possible, based on observational analysis, that the killer star has already gone hypernova thousands of years ago and the speeding death rays could inundate Earth in as little as a year.

Explosions like this can be followed by hypernovas in mere years [Hubble]
像這樣的爆炸可在短短幾年被亢奮新星跟隨[哈勃]

Meanwhile, at the Russian space agency Roscosmos, more space scientists concur that planet-wide death from the violent star could come unexpectedly swift.

The consensus among scientists—and the apprehension—is growing.

http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1249/283/Scientists:_Deadly_Star_Could_Kill_Humanity_Next_Year.html

“伽馬射線暴”威脅地球生命 瞬間破壞臭氧層
2011年10月19日10:05
來源：《北京日報》

持續不足1秒卻能耗竭地球臭氧層


　　對於星體進化歷程而言，地球人類文明或許並不能永恆存在。目前，最新一項研究表明，來自星系碰撞產生的伽馬射線暴將導致地球生物滅絕，甚至這種伽馬射線暴僅持續不足1秒，但對地球生命構成的損害卻是致命的。

　　據美國太空網站報道，美國科學家最新研究顯示，兩顆恆星碰撞產生的伽馬射線暴可釋放數噸高能量伽馬射線進入太空，像這樣的爆炸將耗竭地球臭氧層。破壞臭氧層將導致紫外線抵達地球表面，進而改變地球生物的基因。目前，研究人員開始通過化石記錄來研究分析伽馬射線暴對地球生物滅絕事件構成的影響。

　　美國堪薩斯州華盛本大學研究員布萊恩-托馬斯發表聲明稱，我們發現一種極為短暫的伽馬射線暴可能比持續時間較長的另一種伽馬射線暴更具威脅性。放射持續時間並不是放射量大小的決定因素。這項研究報告發表在10月9日在明尼阿波裡斯市召開的美國地質學會年度會議上。

　　伽馬射線暴具有兩種形式：持續時間較長、較為明亮和持續時間較短的伽馬射線暴，后者持續時間甚至不足1秒，卻能釋放出比前者更多的放射線。如果像這樣的伽馬射線暴出現在銀河系內部，對地球構成的放射性危害將更加持久。釋放的放射線可抵達地球大氣層，導致自由氧原子和氮原子碰撞在一起，並部分結合形成叫做一氧化二氮的摧毀臭氧化合物。一氧化二氮在大氣層中可長時間存在，可對臭氧層持續進行破壞，直至它們像雨點一樣從空中降落下來。

　　這種短暫伽馬射線暴可能是密集中子星或者黑洞發生碰撞產生的，研究人員估計像這樣規模的碰撞可能在任何給定星系中每1億年出現一次。按照這一速率，地球在其45億年歷史中曾遭受了多次短暫伽馬射線暴。

　　臭氧層遭受破壞將對地球生命造成許多影響，放射線將對地球食物鏈的植物和動物構成肆虐破壞，很可能導致全球范圍內的物種滅絕事件。

　　美國宇航局雨燕人造衛星收集的數據觀測到其它星系中存在伽馬射線暴，其釋放的短暫伽馬射線暴可對地球生命構成威脅。目前，研究人員正在搜集之前出現的伽馬射線暴証據，其中包括：僅在放射性事件轟擊地球時形成的特殊元素，例如：較重的鐵元素。

　　目前，托馬斯正與古生物學家協同研究化石記錄物種滅絕事件中重鐵元素的相關等級。

http://scitech.people.com.cn/BIG5/15946062.html

據集結：死亡的引力波即將到達地球