{"id":118,"date":"2007-10-26T09:27:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-26T09:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/2007\/10\/beware-gam%c2%adma-ray-bursts-could-fry-us.html"},"modified":"2011-07-01T16:53:46","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T06:53:46","slug":"beware-gamma-ray-bursts-could-fry-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/2007\/10\/beware-gamma-ray-bursts-could-fry-us-118.html","title":{"rendered":"Beware – gam\u00adma-ray bursts could fry us!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the new re\u00adsearch<\/a>, Doug\u00adlas Galante and Jor\u00adge Er\u00adnes\u00adto Hor\u00advath of the Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of S\u00e3o Pa\u00ado\u00adlo, Bra\u00adzil, ar\u00adgued that gam\u00adma-ray bursts could shine their le\u00adthal ef\u00adfects across a whole gal\u00adaxy, and dam\u00adage life over great\u00ader dis\u00adtances still. The study is to ap\u00adpear in a forth\u00adcom\u00ading is\u00adsue of the In\u00adter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal Jour\u00adnal of As\u00adtro\u00adbi\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy.<\/p>\n
The bursts could cause \u201cglobal en\u00advi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtal changes and bio\u00adspheric dam\u00adage\u201d even at dis\u00adtances five times the Milky Way\u2019s width, they wrote.<\/p>\n
Gamma-ray bursts are thought to emerge main\u00adly from the poles of a col\u00adlaps\u00ading star. This cre\u00adates two, op\u00adpo\u00adsite\u00adly-shin\u00ading beams of ra\u00addi\u00ada\u00adtion shaped like nar\u00adrow cones. Plan\u00adets not ly\u00ading in these cones would be com\u00adpar\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly safe; the chief wor\u00adry is for those that do.<\/p>\n
Galante and Hor\u00advath iden\u00adti\u00adfied three as\u00adpects of gam\u00adma-ray bursts as par\u00adt\u00adi\u00adcu\u00adlar\u00adly deadly.<\/p>\n
The first is a flash of gam\u00adma rays, the high\u00adest-en\u00ader\u00adgy form of light. The flash can im\u00adpe\u00adr\u00adil even the most ra\u00addi\u00ada\u00adtion-resistant or\u00adgan\u00adisms known, the bac\u00adte\u00adri\u00adum Deinococ\u00adcus ra\u00addio\u00addu\u00adrans, the re\u00adsearch\u00aders wrote. This mi\u00adcrobe can take 3,000 times the ra\u00addi\u00ada\u00adtion that would kill a hu\u00adman: the as\u00adsault shreds its ge\u00adnome to hun\u00addreds of bits, but the har\u00addy bug stitches them back to\u00adgeth\u00ader.<\/p>\n
Galante and Hor\u00advath cal\u00adcu\u00adlat\u00aded that for a plan\u00adet with a thin at\u00admos\u00adphere, the gam\u00adma flash could kill 90 per\u00adcent of D. ra\u00addio\u00addu\u00adrans from dis\u00adtances up to three times our gal\u00adax\u00ady\u2019s width. A thick at\u00admos\u00adphere would pro\u00adtect the mi\u00adcrobes from this, but not nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly from a sec\u00adond com\u00adpo\u00adnent of the beam, ul\u00adt\u00adra\u00advio\u00adlet ra\u00addi\u00ada\u00adtion. Ul\u00adt\u00adra\u00advio\u00adlet is a type of light slight\u00adly low\u00ader in en\u00ader\u00adgy than gam\u00adma rays, but le\u00adthal, large\u00adly be\u00adcause it pen\u00ade\u00adtrates DNA very eas\u00adi\u00adly.<\/p>\n
D. ra\u00addio\u00addu\u00adrans, the most ra\u00addi\u00ada\u00adtion-re\u00adsis\u00adtant bac\u00adte\u00adria known. In this im\u00adage, a clus\u00adter of four of the cells are repli\u00adcat\u00ading syn\u00adchro\u00adnous\u00adly. (Cour\u00adte\u00adsy M.J. Da\u00adly, US\u00adUHS)
\nFor thick-at\u00admos\u00adphere plan\u00adets, a gam\u00adma-ray burst\u2019s ul\u00adt\u00adra\u00advio\u00adlet rays would kill 90 per\u00adcent of D. ra\u00addio\u00addu\u00adrans at dis\u00adtances rang\u00ading from 13,000 to 62,000 light years, about two-thirds the ga\u00adlac\u00adtic width, the re\u00adsearch\u00aders cal\u00adcu\u00adlated.<\/p>\n
Life sur\u00adviv\u00ading that on\u00adslaught would have to con\u00adtend with a third ef\u00adfect, de\u00adple\u00adtion of the at\u00admos\u00adphere\u2019s pro\u00adtective ozone lay\u00ader by the burst. This would kill 90 per\u00adcent of D. ra\u00addio\u00addu\u00adrans at up to 40 per\u00adcent of the dis\u00adtance across the Milky Way, Ga\u00adlante and Hor\u00advath es\u00adti\u00admat\u00aded.<\/p>\n
Gamma-ray bursts are de\u00adtected rough\u00adly once dai\u00adly some\u00adwhere in the sky. The like\u00adli\u00adhood of one strik\u00ading Earth has been de\u00adbat\u00aded. Re\u00adsearch\u00aders at Ohio State Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty cal\u00adcu\u00adlat\u00aded, in a pape\u00adr in the re\u00adsearch jour\u00adnal Ac\u00adta As\u00adtro\u00adno\u00admi\u00adca late last year, that the prob\u00ada\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adty is vir\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly nil. Our gal\u00adax\u00ady\u2019s chem\u00adi\u00adcal com\u00adpo\u00adsi\u00adtion is in\u00adcom\u00adpat\u00adi\u00adble with strong gam\u00adma-ray bursts, they wrote.<\/p>\n
On the oth\u00ader hand, as\u00adtro\u00adno\u00admers at the Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of Kan\u00adsas in Law\u00adrence, Kan. and at NASA hy\u00adpoth\u00ade\u00adsized in 2004 that at least one has al\u00adready struck Earth, caus\u00ading the so-called Or\u00addo\u00advi\u00adci\u00adan Mass Ex\u00adtinc\u00adtion 450 mil\u00adlion years ago. The Earth\u2019s sec\u00adond most dev\u00adas\u00adtat\u00ading ex\u00adtinc\u00adtion, it de\u00adstroyed an ar\u00adray of the life forms that had flour\u00adished un\u00adtil then, re\u00adstrict\u00aded in that time to the seas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Enough said. If the ancient Mayans (or they who gave them the info) could accurately predict a gamma-ray event that would be aimed at our planet, then that event could possibly happen in Dec 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the new re\u00adsearch, Doug\u00adlas Galante and Jor\u00adge Er\u00adnes\u00adto Hor\u00advath of the Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of S\u00e3o Pa\u00ado\u00adlo, Bra\u00adzil, ar\u00adgued that gam\u00adma-ray bursts could shine their le\u00adthal ef\u00adfects across a whole gal\u00adaxy, and dam\u00adage life over great\u00ader dis\u00adtances still. The study is to ap\u00adpear in a forth\u00adcom\u00ading is\u00adsue of the In\u00adter\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adal Jour\u00adnal of As\u00adtro\u00adbi\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy.
\nThe bursts could cause \u201cglobal en\u00advi\u00adron\u00admen\u00adtal changes and bio\u00adspheric dam\u00adage\u201d even at dis\u00adtances five times the Milky Way\u2019s width, they wrote.
\nGamma-ray bursts are thought to emerge main\u00adly from the poles of a col\u00adlaps\u00ading star. This cre\u00adates two, op\u00adpo\u00adsite\u00adly-shin\u00ading beams of ra\u00addi\u00ada\u00adtion shaped like nar\u00adrow cones. Plan\u00adets not ly\u00ading in these cones would be com\u00adpar\u00ada\u00adtive\u00adly safe; the chief wor\u00adry is for those that do.
\nGalante and Hor\u00advath iden\u00adti\u00adfied three as\u00adpects of gam\u00adma-ray bursts as par\u00adt\u00adi\u00adcu\u00adlar\u00adly deadly.
\nThe first is a flash of gam\u00adma rays, the high\u00adest-en\u00ader\u00adgy form of light. The flash can im\u00adpe\u00adr\u00adil even the most ra\u00addi\u00ada\u00adtion-resistant or\u00adgan\u00adisms known, the bac\u00adte\u00adri\u00adum …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gamma-ray"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1622,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions\/1622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/survive2012.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}