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I don't mean the small meteors that melt away, I mean if it was hit by a comet the same size as the sun or bigger?
Is the comet more or less dense than Sol?
yeesh -- it wouldn't get within a million miles of the sun before it got vaporized.
About density, what would happen either way if it was less dense or more dense? I just want to know if it is possible for a super giant comet to have an effect on the sun.
Or just two stars colliding. What would be the effects to surrounding planets?
A comet the size of the sun? Eesh...
It'd probably just burn up. The temperature and heat energy of the sun would be too much for it methinks.
Although it'd probably take out a couple of planets first.
Posted By: NeedAnswersWhat would be the effects to surrounding planets?
This is the easiest question to answer: they all fly off into space if they aren't destroyed by either star. The gravitational fluxes pull them off orbits. Very few multi-star systems have planets.
Collisions between stars at the edge of the galaxy are extremely rare. Like you throwing a marble across a football field and striking another marble at the far end; it's just not likely. More likely, is that the stars come near each other, warp each other a little bit and then move on.
That said, scientists believe this happened nearby: in the Large Magellanic Cloud twenty thousand years ago. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/070222_sn1987a_model.html
Posted By: Udoboyif they aren't destroyed by either star
Star? I thought the colliding body was a comet.
No I've determined that if the colliding body was as big or bigger than a star it would really be a star itself. So if a white dwarf or other star with greater density collided with the sun would life on earth perish from the heat or energy of the explosion before dying because the planet floats out to space.
No, life wouldn't perish for that reason.
It would perish due to the millions of years between now and the next time such an event could occur.
Posted By: NeedAnswersNo I've determined that if the colliding body was as big or bigger than a star it would really be a star itself.
How foolish of me - the title of the thread must have thrown my mind off course (much like a wayward star).
If some star were to collide with the Sun tomorrow or in the next -- oh Billion years or so -- I expect the resultant explosion would be immediately cataclysmic at least as far away as Mars.
Udo, are you expecting life to perish due to the passage of time? (I mean 'life' in general -- not those organisms that are alive at this time.) I haven't given it a lot of thought but I suspect that due to evolution and maybe stupidity there won't be humans (Homo Sapiens Sapiens) around after a few millenia (if we are lucky to last even that long) but even if we have a nuclear winter, there will be lower life forms such as cockroaches and fruitflies and maybe Red Sox fans around afterwards.
I think it seems likely that the atmosphere on Earth will be able to sustain life in some form for millions of years to come.
Posted By: Fact totumthere will be lower life forms such as cockroaches and fruitflies
and Cher?
Posted By: Fact totumI think it seems likely that the atmosphere on Earth will be able to sustain life in some form for millions of years to come.
But for how long can civilization as we know it sustain life?
Who knows? If that supercollider in europe creates a black hole then we're all doomed. The good news is it will happen so quickly no one will realize it.
Posted By: Fact totumWho knows? If that supercollider in europe creates a black hole then we're all doomed. The good news is it will happen so quickly no one will realize it.
oh great!!
It'd probably evaporate anyway. I heard that black holes that have a mass approximately less than the mass of mount Everest evaporate almost immediately...
It would only be a problem if it made a large black hole. A teeny-tiny one wouldn't be an issue since it would apparently poof away very quickly. Apparently, it's a not-uncommon belief among those who study such things that teeny-tiny short-lived black holes occur on Earth daily, but they are so small and short-lived that they don't affect anything.
I was reading an article about that last night in _Discover_.
You know when you see a guy walking down the street, and he trips. Then he looks back at the ground to see what tripped him? Yep, tiny black hole that dissipated immediately.
Happens to me all the time.
they keep taking a sock from my laundry with them when they disappear in my house
Oh, is THAT where the socks go? I thought the dryer elves took them for nefarious purposes...
Udo, is that like when the walls move as you're walking? THAT one happens to me regularly, too.
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