[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?

[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.