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Boss Quoted in New York Times |
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Thursday, 13 September 2007 |
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Photo courtesy Nature Publishing Group.
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Alan Boss was quoted in an article,
“Earth Might Survive Sun’s Explosion,” in yesterday’s New York Times. The article, which appears in this week’s Nature, focuses on a study undertaken by Roberto Silvotti of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte and colleagues on the gas giant V 391 Pegasi. Scientists have predicted that our Sun will run out of hydrogen in about five billion years and will swell temporarily more than 100 times in diameter into a red giant, swallowing Mercury and Venus and perhaps wiping out life on Earth. However, V 391 Pegasi—which is about the same distance from its star as the Earth is from the Sun—survived its star’s swelling into a red giant. Silvotti and colleagues hope to create new models based on this finding in order to better predict the destiny of Earth. Boss commented that other planets have endured deadlier obstacles in relation to their stars: “The Pegasus planet has had to survive relatively less lethal conditions, although it must have had a bumpy ride over its estimated 10 billion years of existence. Stellar evolution can be a wild ride for a planet that is trying to survive, especially inner planets like Earth.”
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