Word: solar
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...shock waves from an ancient supernova sparked the creation of the sun and planets, Anders concludes, "it's very likely that the material from which our solar system was formed was contaminated with these diamonds. The diamonds on earth may well be a mixture of those loaded with xenon and those without...
...every size were focused on the bright newcomer in the Large Magellanic Cloud. NASA promptly ordered some of its satellites to do the same. On its way to a rendezvous with Neptune in 1989, the Voyager 2 spacecraft pointed its two ultraviolet-light detectors at the supernova. The Solar Max satellite turned its attention from its primary target, the sun, to measure the gamma rays emanating from 1987A. The International Ultraviolet Explorer began measuring the supernova's ultraviolet radiation. In Japan space officials hurried a newly launched satellite through its calibration tests so that it could begin detecting X rays...
...mass necessary to become a Type II supernova and has no stellar companion to contribute the mass necessary to turn it into a Type I blast. But that will be of little comfort to whatever creatures exist on earth when the sun is in its death throes; the $ final solar convulsions, while feeble compared to those of a supernova, will wipe out all life on the planet...
...earth's current inhabitants, the sun is enjoying a stable middle age, about halfway between its formation some 4.5 billion years ago and its demise about 5 billion years hence. Its radiation may fluctuate by a few hundredths of a percent here and there (data from the Solar Max satellite indicate that the sun's radiation declined from 1980 through 1985). But solar behavior has never been erratic enough to threaten all terrestrial life with extinction...
...Woosley of the University of California at Santa Cruz, "everyone with anything to look with is looking at it." Every optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere is trained on 1987A; a newly launched Japanese satellite is scanning it for X rays emitted by the supernova's hot gases; the Solar Max satellite is looking for the gamma rays characteristic of very energetic explosions; and another spacecraft, the International Ultraviolet Explorer, has already made observations of the explosion's ultraviolet radiation. These indicate that the star's atmosphere, which astronomers have determined is exploding outward at a speed of about...