T Pyxidis, the supernova poised to destroy the earth at any time.
OK, we can all stop worrying about the economy, the healthcare debacle, and the state of affairs in general; it looks like a supernova named T Pyxidis may be plotting our demise and ready to end all of our anguish.
T Pyxidis, a star on the verge of growing too massive and collapsing into a type Ia supernova, was discovered to be closer to Earth than previously thought – close enough to end life here when it finally explodes. NASA
Doomsdayers and 2012 blog-keepers, take note. Astronomers at this week’s American Astronomical Society meeting revealed that a massive white dwarf star in the throes of multiple nova is much closer to our solar system than once thought. When it does finally collapse into a type Ia supernova — okay, if it collapses into a type Ia supernova — the resulting thermonuclear blast will destroy life on earth. Seriously.
According to scientists:
“…the next blast is nearly 20 years overdue…”
Even if T Pyxidis doesn’t do us in, the volcano that is my beloved Yellowstone has been grumbling lately, giving scientists some agita over possible destruction of our continent:
“Depending on the nature and magnitude of a particular hazardous event and the particular time and season when it might occur, 70,000 to more than 100,000 persons could be affected; the most violent events could affect a broader region or even continent-wide areas.”
So stop yer bellyaching. It’ll all be over soon. Can I get an “Oh Great?”
Oh yeah. This is an open thread. In the meantime, enjoy the beauty of a Yellowstone prismatic spring.
Filed under: General | Tagged: Debby Downer, doomsday, End of the World, snark |
The Confluence 
Yellowstone is one of my all time favorite places in the world. My parents used to take us camping there a lot when I was little and one of the first things I did when my eldest got old enough was get my parents to take us. We stayed at one of the old hotels really early in the spring and she was delighted by all the buffalo outside of our hotel window!
When I was little the mudpots just were the coolest thing I’d ever seen!
The really wonderful thing about Yellowstone is that you cannot go for more than 5 minutes without encountering some amazing sight, be it geothermal or animal.
We’re going to go back in a few years.
I love Yellowstone. I grew up in Montana, so my family would go to Yellowstone and Glacier every few years. I remember seeing bears along the roads in both parks in the early ’60s. The mud pots and geysers still are my favorite things. Quake Lake always gave me the creeps.
Montana is simply spectacular.
Yellowstone is our summer destination this year! I can’t wait!
You will love it! if you want any information let me know. We’ve been there twice in the last 3 years and are going back in a few years. BTW, I highly recommend watching the Ken Burns “National Parks: America’s Best Idea” video — especially #2 which is all about Yellowstone. You will be giddy with excitement.
yes, please! any info you can send me would be great!
Here’s Yellowstone’s Web site:
http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm
Indigo — I emailed you some info to start.
I’m still waiting for the Big One to hit California any day now.
I thought I had survived it back in 1989 but they said that was just God’s way of saying he hates the Giants.
Oh SURE, we all get killed by a supernova JUST as I’m getting into Carl Sagan…
No fair.
I just love end-of-the-world scenarios. The Yellowstone supervolcano is one of the best. But this supernova thing sounds promising too. Maybe we won’t all have to go to jail for not being able to afford health insurance.
I loved the discovery documentary on that! After Katrina, I was completely hooked on those disaster documentaries for awhile! I think it was part of my recovery process.
It probably was a way of processing the trauma. After I broke up with my husband, I used to go to lots of violent movies by myself. I know it helped me deal with my anger.
When I first got back it looked like the end of the world, most of the city was empty and destroyed, there were military people and clean up men and that was about it, and then entire city was dark. It felt like Mad Max.
All this happening in time to watch it on 3D tv.
🙂
Gee SOD, you had me going for a minute, but alas I won’t be around in even 50 years…so no need to panic.
Sure, just take away all of my hope.
You are too much… 😆
Don’t worry, we could still get the supervolcano.
Thanks boomer. I needed that. 🙂 WV was trying to depress me with all that “you’re going to survive” stuff.
Actually, it’s probably ‘asploded already.
The light of the explosion will reach us first, then right behind it will be the radiation wave that will melt us like those nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
cool. I’m feeling better already.
Here — this’ll get us back on track:
Since I live only a couple of hours from Yellowstone, maybe I will get to go quickly LOL….that also is one of my most favorite spots on earth…;-)
wow, I can’t even imagine how it feels to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. If I had a lot of money I sure would have a place in Jackson Hole Wyoming.
Jackson Hole is my hubby’s “If I win the lottery” places to buy a house.
I lived there from 2000-04..best place that I have lived. Winter is very different from the North East. Snow is dry, the humidity is low and you aren’t dealing with dirty slush. May is usually “mud” month then the transition to Spring and Summer and then it’s fishing and kayaking season until Oct. The real estate is a bit pricey, however.
Wow. You must be brave to deal with all of that snow. Isn’t winter Sept – June out there?
athyrio, good to see you here! how’s life on the ranch? Hope you’re having a healthy new year.
we are selling the ranch and moving to Billings area…for medical reasons but also to be nearer civilization…hate moving this time of year but will be happy once it is done…nice to see you as well…
Hope everything works out great for you! Moving is never easy but it’s such a relief when it’s done. Take care of yourself.
Supernova _ the most realistic computer simulation ever made (use HQ)
Does this mean I can stop saving for that, what use to be ‘comfortable’ and now is ‘able to survive’ retirement and start taking lavish vacations??! 🙂
say yes.
Hey, use it or lose it.
bummer……….
But the fantastic scale of the cosmos that allows such massive, cataclysmic events to unravel also bears a silver lining for those of us on Earth (2012 believers, stop reading now). Though in terms of star life supernova is likely around the cosmic corner, it’s estimated to happen many millions of earth years from now, a full 10 million years by some estimates. Suffice it to say that we’re far enough from T Pyxidis that we can’t really tell exactly how big it is or how quickly it’s accreting mass. But the end of the world isn’t coming tomorrow. Or even in two years.
stop!! I’m trying to keep my hopes up. I can barely make through tomorrrow let alone the next 10 million years.
I maxed out my credit cards, went to Vegas and partied like a Kennedy cuz Riverdaughter said we were all gonna die from the H1N1 Flying Devil Pig Flu.
Not one of her better predictions.
ROFLMAO! {{{ looking over my shoulder for RD }}}
we’re all dying from that next year – after the Brazilian hottie with a severe case of Miss Piggy (H1N1) gets it on with a goat. The mutation is going to be killer.
The bacterial mats and the pool water at the springs of Yellowstone are so vibrant with color it’s breathtaking.
Did you take that? You and katiebird are crazy talented.
Yes. I took about 100 pictures of the pools and got a few really good ones. The problem is that the steam coming off of the pools from the heat makes the timing of photographs difficult. Most of the pictures are of big wafts of steam rising off of them. If you can get it just when the wind blows the steam way, you get what you see there.
It’s gorgeous.
Lest anyone think that pic is a fluke, here are some really good ones from the net:
They are gorgeous
SOD, these are stunning, thanks for posting them.
SOD, your photo is as good as the one from National Geographic!
You must be one heck of a photographer.
You can see a bit of the steam at the left.
Well, so we’re all going to die soon. No reason not to cheer up:
Dandy — I knew I could count on you! 🙂
He’s just pessimistic because Sharon isn’t around…he’ll want to live once she shows up…trust me on this one. 😉
LOL!
Better than waiting for the Death Panel,
Yep. quicker and lot more exciting too. I want it to be over quickly. None of these scenarios where I’m begging for morphine for days on end.
BTW, Rico has the night off but there’s 151 rum in the punchbowl. Just ignore the fruit; it’s just there for looks.
Have Dandy Tiger make up Geek Drinks (with computer terminology)…that would live the discussion and keep him busy until D’Sharon shows up. 😉
I resemble that remark.
Which do you ‘resemble’, the ‘Geek’ or ‘D-Shron’… 🙂
That I’d make up geek drinks, like a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.
Can I have that straight up or must I go “on the rocks?” I hate to water it down. It gets into the bloodstream faster without the ice.
OK, smarty pants, but clue us in on the meaning.
Ice is such a waste when it comes to serious drinking.
Amen brother….line ’em up — I challenge you to a drink-duel. First one to hit the floor loses
From:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/09/a-dozen-geeky-cocktails-for-your-labor-day-weekend/
Wait, I thought first one to hit the floor wins. What’s the point otherwise. 🙂
You’ve got a point. {{chug}} fill’er up. This one’s history
Ha, I was on my third glass of whisky when this post started. By the way, why are all the words getting blurry?
Just put on the waiter outfit and humor us ‘Ole folks’.
Dandy, not to worry. Just chug a lug a few shots of the 151 and you’ll be swashing and buckling all over the place.
OMG, I actually found some:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/09/a-dozen-geeky-cocktails-for-your-labor-day-weekend/
‘Wired’ is Geek Central…reporting.
Wired is the cool geeky place. For real geekdom, you have to go to slashdot.
http://slashdot.org/
I am a subscriber already and have an account there.
Huh, geeks seem to like a lot of fruit and 7Up. I wouldn’t have necessarily taken them for a little paper umbrella crowd….
I think the stereotype being pushed there, and most places, is perpetual adolescence. So those make sense.
Just because you’re geeky doesn’t mean you don’t know your way around a single malt whisky, good jazz, and the ability to fall on your face with the best of them. 🙂
I prefer to find a nice non-sticker bush to fall face down into. …cushions the fall
eeewww, geekdad uses too much mountain dew, I just gagged reading about his ingredients and fell on the floor.
A liter of the dew?!
I’ll be happy down here with the grey goose, though.
OMG — who would drink this?
Romulan Ale
Activity: Drink while rewatching TNG episodes.
1 1/2 oz White rum
1 oz Blue Curacao
7-Up
6 drops Tabasco sauce
Instructions: Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a tall, narrow glass. Add a grain of salt.
******************************
7 up and tabasco??
you can always tell people that can’t handle their liquor by the amount of sugar they have to add
For our evening entertainment —
In keeping with the theme
I saw them play in the 80s in a Holiday Inn outside of Lincoln Nebraska. It was trippy.
Well you were doing good to find anything trippy in the 80s. Most of my “trippy” was left behind in the 70s. {{sigh…I miss the 70s}}
Totally trippy:
Me too. (sigh)
you want trippy:
Just to keep the mood at the right level for this post:
Ladies and gentlemen…please take your seats, we are about to begin our program. Get ready for
Barack Obama: The Musical.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,670866,00.html
The Germans must not have gotten the notice that the comet-like rise of BO has exploded…like bombed.
Tyler Perry was supposedly working on a bio pic dramatizing the love story of Barack and Michelle, but I think I heard he’s taking some time off.
how on earth will he outdo Faux News in Detroit
Oh, the romance of fisting….
You’re just trying to cheer me up.
I try.
This may be too upbeat for this thread, but it does have a guillotine… unfortunately Outback took over this song…
Actually that’s just perfect, but should be viewed judiciously by those who may be in a state of significant intoxication.
At first I thought someone had a video of one of my visits to FlockDraw
flock draw is polkadots heaven
This oldie is appropriate for the times:
Oh goodie!! Yellow Submarine. Maybe this is what the end of the world will look like…provided one is totally stoned.
I have to fly on a plane tomorrow. I suppose I’ll feel really safe as they inspect every orifice of my belongings and person (while actual terrorists on no-fly lists simply board the plane).
Well James Carville is all excited about whipping out his male appendage for scanning:
http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/in-the-know/36-news/1349-carville-airport-scanners-can-measure-my-penis
You go James: “I have genitalia and I’m not afraid to use them.”
I never liked Mary Matalin, the Republican, but I was grossed out that she could marry Carville-even when I was a Democrat.
I used to like Carville a lot back in the day. After the primary, it seemed like someone bought him off and I always thought he was above that. As for Mary Matalin, what was her mother thinking with that name?
Airport security people across the nation just walked off the job in response.
Guess he’s hoping the scanner will find it for him.
Are you insinuating it must be one of those high res scanners?
yea let me know so i can max out my credit cards
Lol, so Steve Schmidt says Palin kept saying O’Biden in the debate prep and the solution was to have her say, “Can I call you Joe?”
Lol Oh my god–how did Steve Schmidt ever get a legitimate job? He forgot the part about how they had to teach her to walk, because despite being able bodied she never quite got the hang of how the legs are supposed to work. And my god, the tricks they had to employ to teach her to produce sounds from her throat!
steve schmuck also said that Palin ended up “holding more than her own” in the actual debate as if it was b-cuz of his mighty intervention.
Dear god! What an absolute miracle worker! Did he have himself miniaturized so he could be injected into her body and run the show from inside?
he’s like Plankton from Spongebob… or is that Carville’s scannables?
YOU FORGOT THE TERR’ISTS! They’re gonna kill us all, too.
And it’s one, two, three
What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a (damn) crap,
Next stop is (Vietnam) little Iraq,
And it’s five, six, seven,
Open up the pearly gates,
Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
Whoopee! We’re all gonna die.
–Country Joe McDonnald
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
Was someone at Woodstock? 😉
No, not at Woodstock. I admired from afar.
The first time I heard that song was in Vietnam.
http://makethemaccountable.com/index.php/caro-in-vietnam/
Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com
And good morning. Loved this post and all the comments. I think it’s gonna cure my insomnia or I will fix one of those Gargle Blasters, maybe.
🙂 That Gargle Blaster will cure just about anything from the looks of it.
Good morning to you too jangles!
And the tabloids keep painting the Obama times
G’morning! SoD, were you up all night?
Oh heck no. But my daughter called at 6am and woke us up to tell us she was on jer way home from NYC. So much for sleeping in.