Wolf-Rayet Stars :)

This is some great information on Wolf-Rayet stars and goes into the physics of said stars.

*let me say I'm not an expert on this stuff, so if I cannot answer a question I will simply say "I do not know"...maybe some theoretical astrophysicist will show up to provide their input and theories :)

[link to www.physics.usyd.edu.au]

SNIPPET much <50%

WR 104: Technical Questions

This page is for a more in-depth technical discussion of the risk posed by WR 104. There is jargon and techincal stuff ahead, and I won't try to explain all the terms. Ask your local friendly Astronomer if in doubt.

This discussion focusses on the risk to earth from a potential future gamma ray burst (GRB) in WR 104. Note that this was not a big part of my scientific article published in Astrophysical Journal. The article only had a paragraph or two about this scenario. But for understandable reasons, the press and public have picked up on this aspect of the work. It is maybe a little more widely relevant than, say, "radiative braking in colliding-wind systems" (which is discussed at length in the paper).

Furthermore let me add that any discussion of the future behavior of this complicated star system by necessity covers quite a lot of difficult astronomical terrain. I am in no way an expert in all the aspects one needs to cover to see the argument through. So I invite anyone reading this who sees a hole in my logic, or can add insight or detail to the discussion to get in touch and let me know what I have mistaken or missed.

The chain of logic from the observations through to a plausible credible future threat to Earth's biosphere has a lot of steps, and I will try to go through each of them with a realistic discussion of what we (or rather I) know and don't know about each step.

Last Edited by Tampa Heather on 09/11/2014 06:02 PM