<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt">Talk about global warming!<br><br>We'd better figure something out quick, we only have about 5 billion years to go before our Sun expands. I figure all we need are 24 rocket nozzles half-buried in the ground. Just place one in each time zone as close to the equator as possible and have each one fire for an hour between 11:30 am and 12:30 pm local time, not adjusted for daylight savings, every day for the next billion years or so. At that time, we can get an idea whether or not we need to double the number of rocket nozzles or if 24 will do.<br><br>Paul<br><div><span><br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2">
<hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Ted Moffett <starbliss@gmail.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020@moscow.com> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, August 22, 2012 1:46 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> [Vision2020] Red Giant Devous Planet, Hints at Earth's Fate<br> </font> </div> <br><meta http-equiv="x-dns-prefetch-control" content="off"><div id="yiv1866570111"><h1 id="yiv1866570111headline" class="yiv1866570111entry-title">
No need to speculate about when is the ultimate end of our world... The fate described below is inevitable!</h1><h1 class="yiv1866570111entry-title"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48746034/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.UDVDNXlqFnU">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48746034/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.UDVDNXlqFnU</a></h1>
<h1 class="yiv1866570111entry-title">Giant dying star caught devouring alien planet
</h1>
<h2 id="yiv1866570111deck" class="yiv1866570111entry-summary">
Astronomers say red giant's behavior hints at Earth's fate in billions of years
</h2><h2 class="yiv1866570111entry-summary"><div class="yiv1866570111i1">
A swollen star near the end if its life has been caught
devouring one of its own planets — a scenario that could one day be
replayed on Earth when our own sun dies in billions of years, scientists
say.
</div>
<div>Astronomers discovered the cosmic crime scene while studying an
ancient star that has expanded in its old age to became a so-called "<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.space.com/14364-earth-consumed-red-giant-star-5b-years.html">red giant</a>." The star, called BD+48 740, is older than our sun and much bigger. Its radius is 11 times larger than that of our sun.</div>
<div>As the star swelled into a red giant, it probably absorbed its innermost planet, researchers said.</div>
<div>"A similar fate may await the inner planets in our <a rel="nofollow" style="color:darkgreen;padding-bottom:1px;font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;border-bottom-color:darkgreen;border-bottom-width:0.07em;border-bottom-style:solid;background-color:transparent;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook0" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrsta yiv1866570111itxthook" target="_blank" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48746034/ns/technology_and_science-space/#"><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook0w0" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan">solar</span><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook0w1" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan"> </span><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook0w2"
class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan">system</span></a>, when the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.space.com/7084-life-earth-escape-swelling-sun.html">sun becomes a red giant and expands</a>
all the way out to Earth's orbit some 5 billion years from now," study
team member Alex Wolszczan, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State
University, said in a statement. Earth orbits the sun at a distance of
about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers). [<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.space.com/10245-sun-die-earth.html">How the Sun Will Die (Video)</a>]</div>
<div>Two key pieces of evidence identified the <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.space.com/15535-alien-planets-eaten-dying-stars.html">star as a planet-killer</a>, researchers said.</div>
<div>First, the astronomers found abnormally high amounts of lithium, a
rare element in the universe, inside the star. That fact alone hinted
that a missing planet may <a rel="nofollow" style="color:darkgreen;padding-bottom:1px;font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;border-bottom-color:darkgreen;border-bottom-width:0.07em;border-bottom-style:solid;background-color:transparent;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook1" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrsta yiv1866570111itxthook" target="_blank" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48746034/ns/technology_and_science-space/#"><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook1w0" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan">be</span><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook1w1" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan"> </span><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook1w2" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst
yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan">involved</span></a>.</div>
<div>"In the case of BD+48 740, it is probable that the lithium production
was triggered by a mass the size of a planet that spiraled into the
star and heated it up while the star was digesting it," said Wolszczan,
who led the team that discovered the first planets beyond our solar
system, back in 1992.</div><div>Then there was the strange orbit of a giant planet discovered around
the star. The huge planet is about 1.6 times as massive as Jupiter and
circles the star in an extremely elliptical orbit.</div><div>"We discovered that this planet revolves around the star in an orbit
that is only slightly wider than that of Mars at its narrowest point,
but is much more extended at its farthest point," said study team member
Andrzej Niedzielski of <a rel="nofollow" style="color:darkgreen;padding-bottom:1px;font-size:100%;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline;border-bottom-color:darkgreen;border-bottom-width:0.07em;border-bottom-style:solid;background-color:transparent;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook2" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrsta yiv1866570111itxthook" target="_blank" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48746034/ns/technology_and_science-space/#"><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook2w0" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan">Nicolaus</span><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook2w1" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan"> </span><span style="color:darkgreen;font-size:inherit;font-weight:inherit;" id="yiv1866570111itxthook2w2" class="yiv1866570111itxtrst
yiv1866570111itxtrstspan yiv1866570111itxthookspan">Copernicus</span></a> University in Torun, Poland. "Such orbits are uncommon in <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.space.com/10761-sky-full-alien-planets.html">planetary systems around evolved stars</a> and, in fact, the BD+48 740 planet's orbit is the most elliptical one detected so far."</div>
<div>The gravitational fallout of a second planet plunging into the parent
star could have been enough to toss the observed alien planet into the
chaotic orbit seen by the researchers.</div><div>"The highly elongated orbit of the massive planet we discovered
around this lithium-polluted red-giant star is exactly the kind of
evidence that would point to the star's recent destruction of its
now-missing planet," said study team member Eva Villaver of the
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain.</div><div>Still, Villaver said catching such an event in the act was an "improbable feat."</div><div>The international team of astronomers used the Hobby-Eberly Telescope
at the McDonald Observatory in Texas to study the star BD+48 740. The
study's lead author is astronomer Monika Adamow of Nicolaus Copernicus
University. Astronomer Grzegorz Nowak, also of Nicolaus Copernicus
University, also participated in the study.</div><div>The research into the case of the planet-killing star is detailed in a study appearing online in the Astrophysical Journal.</div><div>-----------------------------------------</div>
<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div><div> </div> </h2>
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