Journalism - Beating You With the Stupid Stick

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**Breotan**

To say that the fail is strong in this article is to understate the severity of the issue. Gonna color in some of the worst offenders. Please do take the time to visit the site and check out the comments.

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/577776/20150102/orange-dwarf-star-solar-system-earth.htm#.VKbe8nunl8E

Edgar Jr. Reyes wrote:Two Orange Dwarf Stars To Reach The Solar System Might Wipe Out Human Race

Some would say that the given time frame is truly a long stretch from today. However, the big threat that the phenomena might cause makes the study worth considering as it will have direct effect to future humanity.

European astrophysicist Coryn Bailer-Jones who works at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany is predicting that around 14 stars might come within the next few million years. The astrophysicist came to this prediction after analysing the computer-simulated orbits of more than 50,000 stars that are nearby. The prediction also says that among the thousands of neighboring stars, there at least two that humanity should worry about, Forbes reports.

Bailer-Jones' study is set to appear in an upcoming issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics journal. According to the study, the possibility of the dwarf stars entering the boundaries of the solar system might potentially disturb the trillions of comets orbiting in the Oort cloud beyond the primary planets. This might send many comets into the inner solar system and has the potential to hit Earth. Apparently, the comets are made of rocks, dust and organic materials.

According to New Scientist's report, the two stars that have 90 percent probability of reaching the solar system the closest are named as Hip 85605 and GL 710. The Hip 85605 might reach the solar system in 0.13 to 0.65 light years away, while the GL 710 might take around 0.32 to 1.44 light years in the next 1.3 million years.

The estimate on the current position of the Hip 85605 and GL 710 is not accurate and could still be wrong. However, the threat posed by the movements of these stars nearing the solar system is not a joke.

Report says that the Earth can be affected in three ways. First, the gravity can attract comets into the inner solar system and the passing comets might harshly affect Earth's atmosphere due to the powerful ultraviolet radiation that the comets might cause. Second, a small number of the alleged stars might explode like supernova while passing through the Oort Cloud. Finally, the study says that the effect of the supernova remnants could cause long-term global cooling. The global cooling was also suspected to have wiped out the dinosaurs in the past and it is possible that's such incident might wipe out the human race millions of years from now.

**Grey Templar**

Please.

By the time these Stars are a threat, we'll either not be around any more OR we'll have have had interstellar travel for said couple million years.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we had the technology to send the stars back where they came from by the time this is even a remote threat.

**whembly**

Grey Templar wrote:
Please.

By the time these Stars are a threat, we'll either not be around any more OR we'll have have had interstellar travel for said couple million years.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if we had the technology to send the stars back where they came from by the time this is even a remote threat.

But GT... the Science is Settled™ man!

We, as a species, must acquiesce to our betters in this and be willing to make sacrifices.

**Jihadin**

Time for

**Breotan**

Any science in that show can't be worse than what's in the article.

**Hordini**

I'm pretty sure Thundarr the Barbarian only deals with super-science and sorcery, not regular science.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Hordini wrote:
I'm pretty sure Thundarr the Barbarian only deals with super-science and sorcery, not regular science.

To be fair, most of what was in that article is a far cry from "regular science."

**Hordini**

ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Hordini wrote:
I'm pretty sure Thundarr the Barbarian only deals with super-science and sorcery, not regular science.
To be fair, most of what was in that article is a far cry from "regular science."

Fair enough! I prefer Thundarr anyway.

**SilverMK2**

Given some of the crud that people try to pass off as science (generally in support of some fringe cultural, political or religious idea), one cannot lay the blame too heavily at the feet of a scientifically illiterate journalist. Although one would hope a journalist would attempt to check that what they were writing wasn't a total load of rubbish

One can only hope that the article was written and published by those who do not perhaps have a strong grasp of English in order to understand the original article this article was based on.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Most of the information from this article is poorly reworded from a Forbes article about the same topic. There is also an article on NBC News that is a little less dramatic.

The problem with the article in the OP is that there is a lot of stuff they didn't talk about so what information they do give the reader isn't very clear. The study found 42 stars with the chance to pass within two parsecs of the Sun. At least a few of those stars are massive enough to supernova (which would be bad, as two parsecs is less than seven light-years). However, the star that will most likely pass extremely close, HIP 85605, is a K-type main-sequence star and is of no threat to go supernova (but would still plunge numerous comets into the inner Solar System). K-type main-sequence stars don't end their lives in supernovas. Being somewhat less massive than the Sun (which is a G-type main-sequence star or 'yellow dwarf') and typically stable for two to three times longer than a a Sun-like star (upwards of 30 billion years compared to 10 billion years), they die in the same manner as the sun; expand to many times its size as a red giant, blow off outer shells of gas to form a planetary nebula, and then continue to cool as a white dwarf for hundreds of billions of years.

A passing massive star would pose a serious threat to our planet; the heliosphere of a small, nondescript star like the Sun is massive so a star orders of magnitude more massive would have an enormous heliosphere.

**daedalus**

IBT is an interesting site. One that I'd probably hold less credible than a raving homeless guy eating half cooked roadkill from a garbage fire while loudly protesting the enitre time that the roadkill is really eating HIM, but interesting. In that way they're both similar: IBT starts saying things that sound nutty when you open one of their pages.

Also, this comment made me smile:

I have commented that one reason to stop using fossil fuels now is so we will have a good supply of them when we need to cause global warming to counteract any incident that causes global cooling.

**djones520**

daedalus wrote:
IBT is an interesting site. One that I'd probably hold less credible than a raving homeless guy eating half cooked roadkill from a garbage fire while loudly protesting the enitre time that the roadkill is really eating HIM, but interesting. In that way they're both similar: IBT starts saying things that sound nutty when you open one of their pages.

Also, this comment made me smile:

I have commented that one reason to stop using fossil fuels now is so we will have a good supply of them when we need to cause global warming to counteract any incident that causes global cooling.

Oh man, that is just hilarious.

**angelofvengeance**

Some seriously mental gak in that article lol

**Torga_DW**

ScootyPuffJunior wrote:
Most of the information from this article is poor reworded from a Forbes article about the same topic. There is also an article on NBC News that is a little less dramatic.

The problem with the article in the OP is that there is a lot of stuff they didn't talk about so what information they do give the reader isn't very clear. The study found 42 stars with the chance to pass within two parsecs of the Sun. At least a few of those stars are massive enough to supernova (which would be bad, as two parsecs is less than seven light-years). However, the star that will most likely pass extremely close, HIP 85605, is a K-type main-sequence star and is of no threat to go supernova (but would still plunge numerous comets into the inner Solar System). K-type main-sequence stars don't end their lives in supernovas. Being somewhat less massive than the Sun (which is a G-type main-sequence star or 'yellow dwarf') and typically stable for two to three times longer than a a Sun-like star (upwards of 30 billion years compared to 10 billion years), they die in the same manner as the sun; expand to many times its size as a red giant, blow off outer shells of gas and form a planetary nebula, and then continue to cool as a white dwarf for billions of more years.

A passing massive star would pose a serious threat to our planet; the heliosphere of a small, nondescript star like the Sun is massive so a star orders of magnitude more massive would have an enormous heliosphere.

Until the stars are able to do it in a time frame of less than twelve parsecs, i'm not going to be alarmed.