Brightest Star Explosion Ever Spotted [the brightest supernova astronomers have ever seen]

breitbart.com ^ | 5-7-2007 | SETH BORENSTEIN

[bedolido]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A massive exploding faraway star—the brightest supernova astronomers have ever seen—has scientists wondering if a similar celestial fireworks show may light up the sky much closer to Earth sometime soon. The discovery, announced Monday by NASA, drew oohs and aahs for months from the handful of astronomers who peered through telescopes to see the fuzzy remnants of the spectacular explosion after it was first spotted last fall.

[ClearCase_guy]

Brittany Spears?

Granted, she's not the brighest star, but her career has blowed up real good.

[bedolido]

Chandra Sees Brightest Supernova Ever 05.07.07 According to observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes, the supernova SN 2006gy is the brightest and most energetic stellar explosion ever recorded and may be a long-sought new type of explosion. The top panel of this graphic is an artist's illustration that shows what SN 2006gy may have looked like if viewed at a close distance. The bottom left panel is an infrared image, using adaptive optics at the Lick Observatory, of NGC 1260, the galaxy containing SN 2006gy. The panel to the right shows Chandra's X-ray image of the same field of view, again showing the nucleus of NGC 1260 and SN 2006gy. The Chandra observation allowed astronomers to determine that SN 2006gy was indeed caused by the collapse of an extremely massive star, and not the most likely alternative explanation for the explosion, the destruction of a low-mass star.

[coloradan]

Let’s just say that real estate around Eta Carinae is getting pretty cheap these days.

[mfnorman]

no word on how this would effect that earth-like planet they discovered in another galaxy a couple of weeks ago?

[sticker]

“...caused by the collapse of an extremely massive star...”

So it had to do with The View?

[neverdem]

Astronomers Report Biggest Stellar Explosion

[Crazieman]

And even at 240 million light years away, this star in a distant galaxy does suggest that a similar and relatively nearby star—one 44 trillion miles away—might blow in similar fashion any day now or 50,000 years from now, Smith said. It wouldn't threaten Earth, but it would be visible to people in the Southern Hemisphere, he said.

Leave it to idiot reporters to get something wrong. I can't find any stars 7.3-7.5 lightyears away (assuming 5.88 or rounded up to 6 trillion miles/lightyear) matching such a description. Sirius A comes close at 8.5 lightyears but is visible in the Northern Hemisphere.

[El Gato]

no word on how this would effect that earth-like planet they discovered in another galaxy a couple of weeks ago?

That earth like, kinda sorta, planet is not in another galaxy, it is actually *very* near the earth. Around 20 light years. There's only about 131 stellar objects within 20 light years of earth.

Compared to the distances to the distant galaxy containing this super-supernovae or even the distant to the similiar star in our Galaxy, it's effectively next door.. or actually more like another apartment in the same small apartment building.

[El Gato]

Leave it to idiot reporters to get something wrong. I can't find any stars 7.3-7.5 lightyears away (assuming 5.88 or rounded up to 6 trillion miles/lightyear) matching such a description

I also can't imagine five times bigger than any previously observer supernovae only 7.4 light years away not causing any danger to earth. That's close by stellar distance standards.

It would also mean that the thing could have gone boom 7 years ago and we'd be toast in time for Labor Day. But of course that's true no matter how far away the thing actually is.

It would have nice to identify this potential super-supernovae,wouldn't it?

[El Gato]

Leave it to idiot reporters to get something wrong. I can't find any stars 7.3-7.5 lightyears away (assuming 5.88 or rounded up to 6 trillion miles/lightyear) matching such a description.

The other story linked above says the star in question is Eta Carinae, located in the constellation Carina (right ascension 10 h 45.1 m, declination −59°41m), about 7,500 to 8,000 light-years from The Sun. It is not visible north of, typically, latitude 27°N.

And here a Hubble Snapshot of that bad boy.

As you can see, he's been bad before (1843 - 7,500 to 8,000 years) The resulting nebulae is called the Homunculus Nebula.

[Crazieman]

Eta Carinae is not 44 trillion miles, its 44,000 trillion miles.