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Brightest Star Explosion Ever Spotted [the brightest supernova astronomers have ever seen]
breitbart.com ^
| 5-7-2007
| SETH BORENSTEIN
Posted on 05/07/2007 11:45:45 AM PDT by bedolido
WASHINGTON (AP) - A massive exploding faraway starthe brightest supernova astronomers have ever seenhas 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
TOPICS: Astronomy; Miscellaneous; Science
KEYWORDS: brightest; explosion; star; supernova
1
posted on
05/07/2007 11:45:48 AM PDT
by
bedolido
To: bedolido
Brittany Spears?
Granted, she's not the brighest star, but her career has blowed up real good.
2
posted on
05/07/2007 11:47:27 AM PDT
by
ClearCase_guy
(Enoch Powell was right.)
To: 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.
3
posted on
05/07/2007 11:49:40 AM PDT
by
bedolido
(I can forgive you for killing my sons, but I cannot forgive you for forcing me to kill your sons)
To: bedolido
Let’s just say that real estate around Eta Carinae is getting pretty cheap these days.
4
posted on
05/07/2007 12:00:40 PM PDT
by
coloradan
(Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
To: bedolido
no word on how this would effect that earth-like planet they discovered in another galaxy a couple of weeks ago?
5
posted on
05/07/2007 12:01:01 PM PDT
by
mfnorman
(Jack Murtha: a Lee Harvey Oswald type of marine)
To: bedolido
“...caused by the collapse of an extremely massive star...”
So it had to do with The View?
6
posted on
05/07/2007 1:50:42 PM PDT
by
sticker
To: bedolido
7
posted on
05/07/2007 3:34:05 PM PDT
by
neverdem
(May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
To: bedolido
And even at 240 million light years away, this star in a distant galaxy does suggest that a similar and relatively nearby starone 44 trillion miles awaymight 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.
8
posted on
05/07/2007 9:35:31 PM PDT
by
Crazieman
(The Democratic Party: Culture of Treason)
To: mfnorman
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.
9
posted on
05/07/2007 9:52:17 PM PDT
by
El Gato
("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
To: Crazieman
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?
10
posted on
05/07/2007 10:09:19 PM PDT
by
El Gato
("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
To: Crazieman
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 −59ð41m), about 7,500 to 8,000 light-years from The Sun. It is not visible north of, typically, latitude 27ðN.
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.
11
posted on
05/07/2007 10:29:41 PM PDT
by
El Gato
("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)
To: El Gato
Eta Carinae is not 44 trillion miles, its 44,000 trillion miles.
12
posted on
05/08/2007 6:13:06 AM PDT
by
Crazieman
(The Democratic Party: Culture of Treason)
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