A 10 billion billion billion megaton bomb in space!

BBC ^ | Friday, 21 July, 2000, 18:05 GMT 19:05 UK | Dr David Whitehouse

[vannrox]

Friday, 21 July, 2000, 18:05 GMT 19:05 UK

A 10 billion billion billion megaton bomb in space

KPD1930+2752 is in the constellation of Cygnus

By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse

Astronomers have found a star that will produce one of the biggest explosions in our Universe.

The star, known as KPD1930+2752, will explode within the next 200 million years.

UK researchers believe it is the first star of its kind to be found. They say it may hold the clues to where the stuff that makes up our bodies comes from and perhaps to the future of the Universe itself.

KPD1930+2752 is actually two stars. One is a hot, bright star. The other is a faint, dense star, known as a white dwarf.

The hot star whirls around the white dwarf taking just 137 minutes to complete one trip around its companion.

Pierre Maxted and colleagues, from the University of Southampton, say that KPD1930+2752 is doomed. Energy is being lost due to so-called "gravitational radiation." This means that the stars will collide within the next 200 million years.

Metallic debris

When that happens, there will be a gigantic explosion called a supernova. It will be bright enough to be seen from the other side of the Universe.

Technically known as a Type Ia supernova, the explosion will scatter metallic debris into space, particularly iron, nickel and cobalt. Almost all the iron on the Earth comes from Type Ia supernovae which exploded billions of years ago.

Type Ia supernovae are important for astronomers because they all reach roughly the same brightness when they explode. Because of this, astronomers can use them to measure the scale of space.

By using this method, astronomers have found that the Universe is not only expanding, but that the expansion appears to be speeding up.

The method only works if Type Ia supernovae in distant galaxies are the same as the ones nearby.

Now that KPD1930+2752 has been found, it can be studied in detail so that astronomers can work out how Type Ia supernovae in distant galaxies might behave and so, perhaps, help determine the fate of the Universe itself.

The discovery of KPD1930+2752 will be published in Monthly Notices of The Royal Astronomical Society.

[petuniasevan]

More information -- caution, technospeak ahead:

http://wet.iitap.iastate.edu/xcov23/kpd1930/scijust/

[Rhetorical pi2]

Hey, I just checked with my wife, and she's OK with this:

We are going to grill some hamburgers and brats on the patio that night....ice down some beer cook some potato salad, french fries, and chips.

Put it on your calendar, you are all invited over to our house to watch the fireworks. (And don't tell me you can't get a babysitter this late-just bring the kids!!)

I hear KPD 1930 + 2752 will be better than Fourth of July!!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

What a prognostication. We're Doomed, Doomed, DOOMED!

Well, we've had a good run. Want some popcorn?

[rickmichaels]

Depending on how far it is from us, it may have exploded already.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Real techno speak!

[RightWingAtheist]

A 10 billion billion billion megaton bomb in space:

:-)

[GeronL]

The star, known as KPD1930+2752, will explode within the next 200 million years

The BBC isn't known for its accuracy... 200 million years might be too small a span of time for them.

[GeronL]

Quick. Someone call the International Star Registry and have this thing named for Howard Dean!!!

[CasearianDaoist]

Hah, is that from "Dark Star" I went to Berkely - that film was shot on campus.

[michigander]

Want some popcorn? (... I have no heart and it will make me suspicious of your motives)

Are you related to Orville Redenbacher? :)

[PatrickHenry]

This one looks serious. Remember, don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

[ratzoe]

Someone set us up the bomb

[null and void]

Let there be light...

[justlurking]

OK, who is going to post the obligatory joke about going to take a shower?

[MrJingles]

Hey! Maybe we can use it to cut [giant space diamond].

I was almost dissapointed that you didn't go for the Johnny Carson-style fruitcake joke.

"Hey-ohhhhhh!"

[mikrofon]

Yowza -- technical indeed!

Extracting the following statement from the article-
KPD 1930+2752 becomes the first good candidate of a Type Ia supernova (SNe Ia) progenitor that can be associated with the double-degenerate SNe Ia model...

Based on this description, perhaps Hillary2008D would be an appropriate name for the object.

[al baby]

Not me

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I didn't realize the Ben and JLo movie was that bad.

;)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Astronomers have found a star that will produce one of the biggest explosions in our Universe.

And the 9th largest in all the multiverse!!!

Prior to the third age, that is.

[FBD]

Oooooh!….Ahhhhhhhh!

Type Ia supernova begins as a white dwarf star accreting matter from a companion.:

---

As seen from:
The Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Paranal, Chile: