master_q 0 Posted October 16, 2003 Impending Stellar Catastrophe The Chandra X-ray Observatory has picked up the first scenes of an "Impending Stellar Catastrophe" The star HD 192163 is just waiting for a supernova explosion (but it's going to happen 100,000 years in the future). Click for Spoiler: The initial steps to oblivion involved some expansion. HD 192163 grew to become a red giant and ejected its outer layers at about 20,000 mph. Some 200,000 years later -- a blink of the eye in the life of a normal star -- the intense radiation from the exposed hot, inner layer of the star began pushing gas away at speeds in excess of 3 million mph. When this high speed "stellar wind" rammed into the slower red giant wind that had been sent out previously, a dense shell formed. In the image, a portion of the shell is shown in red. The force of the collision created two shock waves: one that moved outward from the dense shell to create the green filamentary structure, and one that moved inward to produce a bubble of million degree Celsius X-ray emitting gas (blue). Space.COM Location (let's look at the big picture) Click for Spoiler: To Comment go to the science & tech forum Master Q StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites