[Pontiac]

“A natural nuclear source could be a rare fragment from the core of a nearby supernova that is rich in radioactive material. This possibility is highly unlikely, given the scarce reservoir of radioactive elements in interstellar space,” Loeb wrote.

Which radioactive elements emit light in enough quantity to be visible in enough quantity to be detectable from such a distance?

What are the chances that any natural object would have these elements in sufficient quantities to emit enough light to be detectable at any distance?

It is hard for me to imagine that any serious person would put such a statement in print.

Any supernova producing such a fragment reached our solar system while still glowing would have destroyed our solar system when it exploded.

[z3n]

Great post.
I hate to sound like a chinese communist, but there really ought to be a way to ding people's social professional media score when they make claims like this that turn out to be true.

In such a tempting system (that I am only sarcastically advocating for), if you get your score knocked down enough, your salacious or untrustworthy posts, articles, or press releases are demoted out of most people's news feeds.

[Colorado Doug]

Any supernova producing such a fragment reached our solar system while still glowing would have destroyed our solar system when it exploded.

Maybe it did. We just don't know it yet.