Re: "Gamma Rays of Doom"

["Scott D. Kniffin" <Scott.D.Kniffin.1@gsfc.nasa.gov>]

>At 09:58 05/27/98 -0500, you wrote:
>That should be enough to give you the idea.  Now, my question is, does 
>this make sense?  I would think that even 1/r^2 at 3000 light-years would 
>be a big help.  Would we really see a blue glow?  What is the lethal dose 
>from muons?  How does Pu-244 get produced from cosmic-rays?
>
>Any comments?
>
>Doug Minnema
>DOE
>Obviously not work related, but of professional interest (I hope).  As 
>usual, what few thoughts I have are truly my own.

I can help a little here but nowhere near as well as an actual astronomer
could, so here goes:
1. Does this make sense?
As cosmological theories go, its fairly solid but another direct
observation of one with Hubble and a gamma ray observer would really be
necessary to iron out the details and the actual mechanisms.  There may be
other contributing factors such as the environment around the stars.  

2. 1/r^2 and 3k ly?
Not really.  Remember that a neutron star is somewhere less than half the
size of our sun, but a truly ridiculous ammount heavier.  Remember the "a
teaspoon would weigh more than this battleship" add from about 10 years
ago?  Same type of star.  Now slap two of these together with uneven grav
fields, several hundred thousands of miles an hour impact velocities as
they spiral into each other and all that mass no longer constrained in a
roughly spherical shape and the energy release would be well beyond what
the human mind could conceieve.  As an aside, neutron stars are the size
they are because they can't hold any more mass, when the origional star
there went nova, what was able to collapse in on itself did and any extra
was spun off into the great 'void'.  

3. Blue Glow?
Yes, the intensity would probably be sufficient.  As for the size of the
glow and the nitric oxides I haven't an answer, that's way over my
knowledge level.  

4. LD for muons?
No idea.  Anyone else know?

5. Cosmic rays and isotope production?
A cosmic ray is little more than a neucleus with some electrons ripped off
going very, very, very fast.  We (earth) get hit by them constantly.  They
wreak havoc on computers when they hit a critical component on a microchip.
 Even on the ground.  Fortunatly, there aren't many and most of the
shielding is done by the atmosphere.  While typical cosmic rays can have
energies in the GeV range, ones from an event like this could conceivably
extend into the TeV range.  When this thing comes and hits the ground
(which it will) this is little more (HA!) than an uncontrolled atom smasher
event which will produce some strange things.  Among them, radioactive
isotopes with long (and very short) half-lives.  Why they choose the
isotopes they did may have to do with the spectrum of masses one usually
sees in cosmic rays, but that's just a guess on my part.  Now if we were to
get the equivalent of 10 million years worth of cosmic rays in a month,
that would probably be detectable.  However, this sounds like a salt on the
wound type of problem if the muons are as bad as the author stated.  We'll
be dead and non-NORM radioactive instead of just dead.  Yippie.

Hope this helps.  I'll gladly accept corrections or additions to my
knowledge of these phenomenon as well.  Whenever I think about stuff like
this I can't help but have Monty Python's "The Universe Song" pop into my
head.  Well, back to the details of life, like this awful report I'm
avoiding writing.  (Thanks for the break, Doug!) 

Scott Kniffin

mailto:Scott.D.Kniffin.1@gsfc.nasa.gov
RSO, Unisys Corp. @ Lanham, MD
CHO, Radiation Effects Facility, GSFC, NASA, Greenbelt, MD

The opinions expressed here are my own.  They do not necessarily represent
the views of Unisys Corporation or NASA.  This information has not been
reviewed by my employer or supervisor.