Two stars will merge in 2022 and explode into red fury..

[Itsallaguess]

Interesting article below, where scientists are predicting that a stellar event will occur in 2022 that will be visible to the human eye for around 6 months -

In 2022, there will be a spectacular sky show. Two stars will merge into one, pushing out excess gas into an explosion known as a red nova. At magnitude 2, it will be as bright as Polaris in the sky, and just behind Sirius and Vega in brightness. The collision in the constellation of Cygnus will be visible for up to six months.

That’s pretty impressive. What’s more impressive: we’ve never been able to predict a nova before. But Lawrence Molnar, a professor of astronomy and physics at Calvin College, was able to find a pair of oddly behaving stars giving an indication of what might happen.

The objects, termed KIC 9832227, are currently contact binaries. Contact binary refers to two objects that are so close they are currently touching. The object was discovered by Kepler. The expected outcome is a merger between the two stars that will put on quite a show. Because both are low mass stars, the expected temperature is low, with Molnar terming it a “red nova.”

http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/01/2022-red-nova

I'm sure we'll hear more about it nearer the time, but it'll be interesting to see how their prediction unfolds....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Spet0789]

Is this a prediction from experts?

Won’t get much traction these days.

[Itsallaguess]

Is this a prediction from experts?

Won’t get much traction these days.

Is it really necessary to spoil every thread with this sort of thing?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Gengulphus]

I've found an original scientific paper about this - it's at:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.38 ... a6ba7/meta

It's pretty dense and technical stuff, and 19 pages long, so definitely not everybody's cup of tea! But thought I'd post it to save anyone who is interested in the technical detail the trouble of tracking it down - at least by the route I found, it wasn't all that easy!

Gengulphus

[JMN2]

How many light years away? Has this already happened?

[zico]

The stars are 1,800 light years away, so when the actually collided, the Romans were ruling Brittania. Space really is big.

[Gengulphus]

Agreed, except that it should be 'if' they collided, not 'when'! It is a prediction about what we'll see based on a theory. If the theory is correct, we'll see the 'red nova' happen in 2022 or about then (the researchers "estimate time of merger is the year 2022.2 ± 0.7", so there's a fair amount of uncertainty); if it's wrong, we probably won't, though it's conceivable that one might by a completely different mechanism... So the most valuable point about the prediction is that if we don't see it happen, we'll know that particular theory is wrong!

Gengulphus

[scotia]

So the most valuable point about the prediction is that if we don't see it happen, we'll know that particular theory is wrong!

And lets hope the non-scientific world doesn't get hold of the prediction. Otherwise we will get big headlines and even bigger ones if it doesn't live up to expectations - on the lines as suggested by spet0789.