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HN discussion on this is entirely about aliens, clickbait and pink ducks (for some reason). Come on people.

Given this thing is only 4000 light years I way I'd like to know if there's any chance of it causing some kind of apocalypse at some point. I guess if it's a magnetar the gamma-ray-burst-producing event in its life is already past?

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Anything beyond ~50 light years is out of range.

Potentially a direct hit from a GRB few kiloparsecs away would cause issues, but for extinction level events the GRB needs to be a lot closer.

This doesn't seem to be a GRB. It's more likely to be a magnetar, and at this distance there's nothing at all to worry about.

The concept of anything a light year away or more being able to wipe out life on Earth is pretty mind-boggling to me. I wish we focused more on things that were mind-boggling rather than mind killing. But that's just not how this culture is playing out.

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