[Beltalowda]

I mean, not much you can do about it, can you?

Either way, it's not likely to produce a GRB in the first place, it's too far away to really affect the earth in dramatic sci-fi story ways, and it's pointed in the wrong way.

It's a "GRB candidate" in the same way you're a "lottery winner candidate" if you buy a ticket.

[dylan604]

>I mean, not much you can do about it, can you?

AKA: How I stopped worrying and learned to love the GRB

[doctor_eval]

What does “pointed in the wrong direction” mean? Isn’t it a sphere? Genuine question; I am ignorant of such things.

[JumpCrisscross]

> What does “pointed in the wrong direction” mean?

Gamma-ray bursts [1] are a class of observations, not single event. (Like how we first saw pulsars, and then learned they're neutron stars.) Some GRBs may originate from relativistic jets [2] emitted by massive, spinning, charged objects colliding (e.g. black holes) or collapsing (supernovae). Those jets' intensity is not uniform, they emit from the poles. (See: spinning, charged.)

There are other proposed mechanisms that columnate emissions [3][4]. These involve a star's rotation creating a radiating column along the star's axis. (I'm not sure if the atoms in that column radiate with a bias.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysical_jet

[3] https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9808355

[4] https://www.plasma-universe.com/gamma-ray-bursts/

[Beltalowda]

Stars have a magnetic field and rotate along their axis, similar to planets. The burst is emitted along the axis of rotation (the geographic north and south pole).

Many stellar objects rotate and/or have a magnetic field, and thus an "up", "down", and "side" in spite of being a sphere. Pulsars (extinguished stars that emit radio waves from their poles) are another famous example.

[mrshadowgoose]

Stars, like planets, rotate around an axis. GRBs that are emitted by collapsing stars are believed to be directionally aligned with the axis of rotation.

[echelon]

> I mean, not much you can do about it, can you?

Work to shed our biology faster.

We'll get to that sometime in the next hundred years or so.

[suggestion]

Mate I've got some bad news for you