turbo23dog
Member
I voted solar flares. It was the only choice close enough to our Sun going supernova. From college astronomy (note: not astrology, that's a pseudoscience), the sun will in about a couple of million years will collapse and turn into a black hole, sucking in all matter close and far away. The earth will likely be toast before this occurs as it is a part of that process, unless of course the freewill of man causes other calamity that brings the end sooner.
Brings to mind that old PBS television series and book: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and that most famous destination: The Restaurant at the end of the Universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
From the notes at http://library.thinkquest.org/C001245/SunSn.html
As the mass of the star's iron core approaches 1.4 solar masses (due to continued silicon and sulfur burning in a thin shell adjacent to the iron core), a dramatic sequence of events is being triggered: Gravity, which up to now was balanced by the outward force of the pressure, decisively gains the upper hand and .In less than a second, the core collapses from a size of about 5,000 miles to one of about a dozen miles, and an enormous amount of energy is released. This collapse happens so fast that the star's outer layers have no time to react and participate in it. What is released during core collapse is truly gigantic. It is equivalent to the energy produced by 100 stars like the Sun, during their entire lifetimes of more than 10 billion years! Most of the energy released during the collapse of the iron core is carried off into space by elusive particles. A small fraction of the energy is deposited into the lower layers of the envelope surrounding the core and triggers the supernova explosion.
Brings to mind that old PBS television series and book: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and that most famous destination: The Restaurant at the end of the Universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Places_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
From the notes at http://library.thinkquest.org/C001245/SunSn.html
As the mass of the star's iron core approaches 1.4 solar masses (due to continued silicon and sulfur burning in a thin shell adjacent to the iron core), a dramatic sequence of events is being triggered: Gravity, which up to now was balanced by the outward force of the pressure, decisively gains the upper hand and .In less than a second, the core collapses from a size of about 5,000 miles to one of about a dozen miles, and an enormous amount of energy is released. This collapse happens so fast that the star's outer layers have no time to react and participate in it. What is released during core collapse is truly gigantic. It is equivalent to the energy produced by 100 stars like the Sun, during their entire lifetimes of more than 10 billion years! Most of the energy released during the collapse of the iron core is carried off into space by elusive particles. A small fraction of the energy is deposited into the lower layers of the envelope surrounding the core and triggers the supernova explosion.
