This Hypergiant Star Is Shedding 30 Earths A Year

Fanghawk

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Feb 17, 2011
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This Hypergiant Star Is Shedding 30 Earths A Year

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1009/1009436.pngThe hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris is getting ready to explode, and will shed the mass of multiple Earths along the way.

With so much going on in space, it's easy to fixate on the dramatic events of <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165206-Supermassive-Black-Hole-Seen-Eating-A-Star-For-The-First-Time>supermassive black holes or <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/142856-Astronomers-Find-Most-Mysterious-Star-Of-Our-Galaxy>potential alien civilizations. But if you look past grand happenings, you can see fascinating events in even the finer details. Take VY Canis Majoris, a hypergiant star nearing the end of its lifecycle. Majoris will eventually explode, but that's not what has scientists talking: It's that Majoris is literally shedding its mass in the form of dust, enough to fill 30 Earths per year.

Scientists have long known that red supergiants shed dust before exploding in a firey inferno of destruction. But until recently, we haven't been able to closely examine the process for ourselves. Thankfully, ESO's Very Large Telescope has been documenting the process, giving us a better picture of the star's last moments. "Massive stars live short lives," Peter Scicluna of the Academia Sinica Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan explained. "When they near their final days, they lose a lot of mass."

What sorts of things are we discovering from this dust? Other than the insane amount Majoris is shedding, the dust particles themselves are super-sized. Each particle is approximately 0.5 micrometers wide, which is 50 times larger than your typical interstellar dust particle. Of course, Majoris itself is also one of the largest stars in the Milky Way - they don't call it a hypergiant for nothing. If Majoris sat in the center of our solar system, it would easily consume Jupiter's orbit.

One day, Majoris will explode, destroying nearby dust while sending more deeper into space with heavier elements. Eventually, that dust form new stars and planets, and the circle of interstellar life will continue. That said, the explosion won't happen for hundreds of thousands of years, so for now all we can do is observe the oversized dust. Presumably any alien civilizations out there would do well to invest in a Swiffer.

Source: CDA News

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Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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Totally not on topic but I misread the title (or my brain decided to spice it up) as "Shredding 30 Earths A Year" and a number of scenarios whipped through my head making me wish I had the artistic talent to translate those visions to reality in some format... because thinking of a Giant Star putting 30 Earths through a cheese grater made me laugh.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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albino boo said:
Thats one hell of weight loss secret.
This one amazing secret can cause you to lose up to 30 Earth masses in just 12 months! The method the stars use, but NASA doesn't want you to know about! Click here!
 

FalloutJack

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom
Nov 20, 2008
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albino boo said:
Thats one hell of weight loss secret.
008Zulu said:
I hope it's not because of some kind of fusion disorder.
This is what will eventually happen to Richard Simmons, shredding thirty participants in his workout a year.
 

rcs619

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Mar 26, 2011
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To all sapient alien species currently living within 100 lightyears of VY Canis Majoris...

GTFO! Run! Get the hell out of there ASAP! When these kinds of hypergiant stars go nova, you're looking at the biggest naturally-occurring explosions in the known universe.

Eta Carinae is another hypergiant star (it's actually much more massive than VY Canis Majoris) and I believe it's expected to put out enough gamma rays during its supernova to strip the atmosphere off of (and effectively sterilize) any planet within a hundred lightyears or so.

VY Canis Majoris likely won't be quite that powerful, but a hypernova is no joke either way. I wouldn't want to be within 200 lightyears of the thing just to be safe, lol.
 

Product Placement

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Jul 16, 2009
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rcs619 said:
To all sapient alien species currently living within 100 lightyears of VY Canis Majoris...

GTFO! Run! Get the hell out of there ASAP! When these kinds of hypergiant stars go nova, you're looking at the biggest naturally-occurring explosions in the known universe.
Heh. And go where? Unless they crack the FTL problem they won't have time to get far enough away.

Hell, the star is located almost 5000 lightyears away from Earth, so chances are that it's already exploded and the effects simply haven't reached us yet.