What happens to Earth if MW becomes a quasar?

[robnissen]

Interesting article today in SDC:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/q ... sions.html

I especially found this sentence intriguing:

"When the Milky Way collides with Andromeda, if at that time there's enough gas available, that gas will probably end up in the center around the black hole, making a quasar," Treister said."

If that happens what would that to do Earth. Quasars put out a phenomenal amount of energy. Would Earth be sheltered from all that energy because it is 25K LY away? Or, would the amount of energy put out by a quasar harm Earth even at Earth's distance from the galactic center? Also, would it make a difference if Earth was lined up with the poles of the quasar?

 

[ramparts]

Well, since we're in the galactic plane we wouldn't be in the way of the jets, and we'd be blocked from a lot of the energy by the accretion disk because of our position, but I don't know for sure

 

[robnissen]

I'm not sure if there is any basis for assuming the jets of the quasar would be perpindicular to the plane of the MW.

 

[Gravity_Ray]

Andromeda is colliding with MW about 5 billion years from now, but the sun is probably is going to die in about the same time. More than likely there will be no Earth at the time of the collision. So lets not worry and open another bottle of Hennessy.

 

[bdewoody]

My understanding of Quasars is that they are extremely old celestial objects formed in the first round of galaxy development soon after the big bang. I don't think it's likely that a mature galaxy like the Milky Way would ever go that route.

 

[SpaceTas]

When I saw the title:
I read it as
What happens if Meteor Wayne becomes a Quasar?
rather than
What happens if the Milky Way becomes a Quasar?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Owwww, that's gonna leave a mark!!

 

[robnissen]

When I saw the title:
I read it as
What happens if Meteor Wayne becomes a Quasar?
rather than
What happens if the Milky Way becomes a Quasar?

While I agree that Meteor Wayne is a bright guy, I'm not sure he is one of the brightest objects in the entire UNIVERSE!!

 

[Saiph]

bdewoody: Quasars are merely a galaxy's central, supermassive BH eating a huge quantity of matter. The reason we see them in younger galaxies, as opposed to more mature ones, is they have yet to thin out all the available gas. Older galaxies have already consumed most of the easily reached material.

Older (and closer) galaxies are in a quasar stage too, though not to the same degree. They're less intense, and typically called "Active Galactic Nuclei" (AGN) in the literature.

The idea is that if Andromeda smacks the Milky Way, the resulting turbulence could send lots of matter heading towards the central BH, thus allowing it to enter an active quasar-like phase.

I doubt it would be as intense as a traditional quasar, but the outpouring of energy could be unhealthy. How bad...I don't know.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Land will become uninhabitable within half a billion years due to increased solar output, so the question is kind of moot. It is theorised that rapid climate change could wipe all large surface animals (including us) off the face of the planet within 100 years.
If we can't move on to another planet, (Mars, hint, hint ) modify & control it's atmosphere & climate, we will not really care what happens when Andromeda & Meteor Wayne.... I, I, I mean The Milky Way collide.

 

[EarthlingX]

It would also help, if we knew where Earth would be, at that time, which is, i think, a bit far in the future to predict.
When Andromeda comes to visit, i guess, there will be fire-works and they'll throw a party, or a couple, with all that gas, crashing one into another. That would worry me a bit more, but if i remember correctly, Earth will be on the other side of the Galaxy at that time.
Where's that Hennessy ? A couple of beers, just in case, and a sandwich ?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Well, that's hard to say. the possible collision of Andromeda and the MW is 5 billion +/- 2 billion years, and the sun's orbit is about 1/4 billion years, so we really can't say.

 

[centsworth_II]

...the possible collision of Andromeda and the MW is 5 billion +/- 2 billion years...

That's about the time the sun becomes a red giant and swallows up the Earth. Quasar or not, the Earth's fate is sealed.

 

[brandbll]

...the possible collision of Andromeda and the MW is 5 billion +/- 2 billion years...

That's about the time the sun becomes a red giant and swallows up the Earth. Quasar or not, the Earth's fate is sealed.

That's what i was thinking when i read the OP.

 

[Astro_Robert]

Boris,

'Climate change' has a couple of major problems.

The first is the well publicized nature of the data. The second is the interpretation of the 'results' Note that most climate models seem to predict global desertification. However, our experience with warmer climates from the geological record suggests otherwise. Back in the Jurasic period Dinosaurs ate huge plants, ferns grew to 20 feet tall, and 'greenhouse' gasses were more than 10x todays level.

Will our climate change due to solar (correlation of surface temperature with subspot count is well documented) or other effects, yes (as it has in the past 4.5 billion years even without man). Is it driven by manmade influences, can't say. But history indicates that a warmer climate seems more likely to result in lush greenery than desert.

On the other hand, taking care of our environment IS a worthwhile goal. I lived in LA some years back and I could 'taste' the air when I excersized outside, so I have a profound appreciation for the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, but their successes do not mean tha 'climate change' is real.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Apparently you misunderstood what Boris is talking about. We are not talking about the small climate change underway now, but that induced by greatly increasing solar output. Within a billion years or so, it will be too hot for liquid water to exist on the earth's surface. No matter what we do.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Apparently you misunderstood what Boris is talking about. We are not talking about the small climate change underway now, but that induced by greatly increasing solar output. Within a billion years or so, it will be too hot for liquid water to exist on the earth's surface. No matter what we do.

Says who? I thought the Sun is in a relative steady-state for the next 5 billion years. Isn't that one reason it's called a "main-sequence" star? I suppose we can predict such things by observing other G-2 class, main-sequence stars and different phases of their lives, but it still seems to be a stretch to say that the oceans will boil off in as short a time as one billion years.

And with regard to the OP, everything I've read on the subject of the collision of MW and Andromeda is that it will take place in about 2 billion years. But the collision and subsequent "union" itself will take a billion years or more still. Galaxies collide and merge all the time, with hardly any collisions of the constituent stars or the creation of deadly, primordial giant quasars.

 

[centsworth_II]

....Galaxies collide and merge all the time, with hardly any collisions of the constituent stars or the creation of deadly, primordial giant quasars.

We don't need to wait for Andromeda to hit before worrying about colliding stars. The Earth's biosphere may be finished off in just a million or so years by this...

Star set to collide with solar system
"New calculations show that the orange dwarf, called Gliese 710, will crash through the Oort Cloud....
Some believe it could lead to a repeat of the Late Heavy Bombardment....
The threat from Gliese 710, a star with about half the mass of the sun... is rated as 86 per cent likely. That is nearly as good as a certainty."

 

[jakedimare]

All the matter in the universe will be converted into computational substrate by then. Thus, the computers will likely take appropriate care to protect their hardware from disasters with navigational guidance systems. We'll all be permanently uploaded into custom tailored virtual worlds by then and little details like sufficient oxygen, food or appropriate temperatures for carbon based life will be irrelevant to our continued survival.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

....Galaxies collide and merge all the time, with hardly any collisions of the constituent stars or the creation of deadly, primordial giant quasars.

We don't need to wait for Andromeda to hit before worrying about colliding stars. The Earth's biosphere may be finished off in just a million or so years by this...

Star set to collide with solar system
"New calculations show that the orange dwarf, called Gliese 710, will crash through the Oort Cloud....
Some believe it could lead to a repeat of the Late Heavy Bombardment....
The threat from Gliese 710, a star with about half the mass of the sun... is rated as 86 per cent likely. That is nearly as good as a certainty."

Yeah. Jump right in. There's already a thread on the K-class Gliese 710 at the bottom of this forum index page.

IMO, that's a stretch as well. In the 5 billion years of the Sun's existence, a solar collision is going to happen--for the first time, so far as we know-- in one million years? Sure.

 

[shortway]

I would hope that humans would not be around to see this. Dont worry, im not wishing an end to humanity, rather hoping that in a few billion years humans would have continued on the path of evolution to become something greater. Its likely that our Earth would be unrecognizable by then anyway.

 

[WiltedShamroks]

Based on several theory threads that have been posted here on the Space.com News boards. There's several things that may happen, and one of them, yes, the Earth could even be in the jets of a quasar a few billion years from now.

Start at the beginning, the process of two large galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda crashing into each other is pretty much expected and accepted by most. The date of this process is to begin that I remember is in about 200 million years (that may be wrong). And, the process of the two mergers, mingling and orbiting each other until the two central black holes merge into a singular and more massive black hole could take up to two billion years, give or take allot of hundreds of millions of years. But, that would be the beginning of what's needed for a quasar to develope. The massive black hole being just one, after that, it would take several hundreds of millions of years before the 'quasar' stage would begin (gotta give time for the gas/dust/whatever to fall towards the new black hole).

Now, during all that time, there's allot more peril or grace that the Earth could become part of during the dance of the two black holes and galaxies merging. The stringing out process (the first few orbital passes of the galaxies merging) of the two galaxies could either transport the sun and solar sytem out on one of the strings or push the solar system towards the central location of the two blackholes getting closer to each other or keep us somewhere inbetween one of these two extremes.

If we're in one of the strings, generally, nothing traumatic will happen to the solar system, we'll be transported so far away from the dangerous central areas that only if the quasar jets happen to be aligned to our section of the strung out arms of the former galaxies will the solar system get kicked with lethal volumes of radiation.

If we're in the region that is in between the two merging galaxies, odds are the solar system would end up in orbit around the plane of the two merging black holes anywhere from being too close to the central area to the edge of the plane of the new galaxy. Either way, we'd be exposed at some point to too much radiation from the mergings for too long for any life in the solar system to survive, or care where the quasar jets are actually pointed. It would be overkill if we end up as part of the central region of the new galaxie and in an orbit that may have us pass thru the jets of the quasar at that point.

The third location we could end up in is to be inbetween the two orbiting black holes for a long enough time that the solar system would probably get ripped apart and not be recognizeable. In which case, most of the matter of the solar system would actually probably be part of the materials needed to fuel the quasar. The quasar would happen long after the solar system would be shredded.

 

[MeteorWayne]

If I become a quasar, all woo-woos shall feel my wrath with extreme prejudice. Their smoking carcasses shall litter the landscape. :evil:

 

[EarthlingX]

If I become a quasar, all woo-woos shall feel my wrath with extreme prejudice. Their smoking carcasses shall litter the landscape. :evil:

Beware, the sky will fall !!! :shock: The day of doom is nigh !!! and so on .. :roll:

(very poetic, MW, nice picture of gloom

Oh, and, WiltedShamroks welcome to SDC, nice post

 

[ToyOne]

Much more likely that Earth would be destroyed by a shockwave or GSB from within our own galaxy before then.