Question

I've just found out about something called WR 104, which is worrying me, can you explain this and help me out?

Don’t worry about WR 104; I will explain why in a moment. Your question is like others I receive, often several per day, that express a kind of cosmophobia — a fear of the cosmos. News stories about astronomical events are triggering widespread worry: fear of asteroid impacts, fear of solar storms, fear of black holes, fear of the dark rift, fear of something called the photon belt (which does not exist), fear of planetary alignments (mostly imaginary), fear of reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field, fear of the dwarf planet Eris, and of course fear of aliens and of the imaginary planet Nibiru. This fear is created or at least abetted by irresponsible Internet sites, some set up by the sort of people Neil DeGrasse Tyson called “those who did not do well in science classes”. Such rumors are also frequently found on catastrophist and conspiracy theory websites. Part of the problem lies also with the scientists, who sometimes hype their results seeking more media coverage, and who often fail to speak up to calm such irrational fears. I am especially concerned by the way these fears of the cosmos influence children, who lack the sophistication to distinguish exaggerations and falsehoods from real science. How sad it is to grow up fearing science rather than appreciating the wonders that science is constantly discovering. Returning to WR 104, this is what astronomers call a Wolf-Rayet star, which means a massive star probably in a pre-supernova state (see the Wikipedia articles on WR 104 and supernovas for details). It is 8000 light years away, about a third of the distance to the galactic center. No one knows when it will explode, but probably within the next million years. It is possible that when this happens there will be a noticeable burst of gamma rays arriving at the Earth and absorbed in Earth’s atmosphere. For perspective, there is about one supernova in our Galaxy every 100-200 years. I see no reason to be worried about WR 104, certainly not worried the way are about the real and immediate threat of global warming, which is happening all around us today.

David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
August 10, 2009