Professor Predicts Binary Star Collision Will Light Up Night Sky
In 2022, a binary star system will merge creating a massive explosion visible from Earth by the naked eye. Astronomers say this stellar collision in the Cygnus system will create what’s known as a red nova, in the first ever predicted collision of a binary star system.
These stars, known as KIC 9832227, are an eclipsing system, meaning they’re locked in a cosmic dance around each other, observed to have grown shorter over the past five years. The stellar companions were first observed by Calvin College professor, Lawrence Molner.
Molner is monitoring the system with a low budget and relatively small telescope to predict the stars’ collision. He says typically observations of this magnitude involve billions of dollars and teams numbering in the thousands. But rarely will a phenomenon such as this achieve that level of funding, due to the low probability of prediction accuracy.
“It’s a one-in-a-million chance that you can predict an explosion,” Molner said. “It’s never been done before.”
Though binary mergers like this have been observed before, it’s usually after the fact. If Molner’s prediction holds up it will be a first. The only other red nova to have been observed after a collision was by astronomer Romuald Tylenda, in 2008.
When the two stars eventually collide, they will produce what’s called a luminous red nova – an explosion that releases energy tantamount to all of the energy our sun will release in its entire lifetime, and it will be visible without a telescope for up to a month.
After the merge, the stars will join to form a larger, hotter main sequence star. The collision will result in an increased brightness of ten thousand fold and will glow bright in the Cygnus swan constellation.
When Molner talks about predicting the stars collision, it’s actually about predicting something that has already happened, nearly 2000 years ago. That’s because this binary star system is 1,800 light years away from us, so Molner is predicting that these stars collided 1,800 years ago and the light emitted from them will reach is in about four more years.
Molner admits he doesn’t really know whether the stars collided or not, it’s simply a prediction. He said we weren’t supposed to discover this system and that it essentially happened by chance. But if he’s right, he’ll make history.
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NASA Preparing to Deflect Massive Asteroid From Earth Collision
NASA is preparing to deflect the massive asteroid, Bennu, currently set on an Earthbound trajectory for the year 2135. This potential Earth impactor is about 1,600 feet long and may require a nuclear blast to disrupt its course.
The likelihood of Bennu hitting our planet is a 1-in-2700 chance, but when it comes to an asteroid that size, those odds are a bit too close for comfort. In the event of an impact, Bennu, would slam into the planet with 80,000 times the force of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Depending on where it strikes, Bennu would blow a crater over a mile into the Earth’s crust, causing mega-tsunamis, fires, and likely a nuclear winter. The chances of our species surviving would be slim.
NASA is working proactively to nudge Bennu on a different course, as it gets more difficult to do so, the longer we wait. In conjunction with the National Nuclear Security Administration, NASA is working on a project proposal called HAMMER, the Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission, to prevent humanity from sharing the same demise as the dinosaurs.
HAMMER is ideal for knocking large asteroids off course, especially those with a short timeframe for impacting Earth. Sound like the premise of the 1998 Michael Bay blockbuster, Armageddon?
