If so, the star, which is 600 light-years away, will already have exploded — and we'll soon be in for a spectacular, and perfectly safe, interstellar fireworks show.
Oh, I remember the huge night-time display that the mighty comet Kohoutek (sic?) was supposed bring us way back in the winter of '75(?).
"Oh, the night time skies will be lit with the bright tail of the comet as it makes its pass close to the Earth," they said.
Pheh! I didn't see CRAP!!!
Otherwise, we'd have to travel forward in time, collect some Red Matter from the Vulcans, then travel backward 600 years before the present and inject the star with it.
That would've been a lot of work.
Hopefully, it will happen during the winter, when Orion is in the nighttime sky.
Wish full thinking, the "safe" distance from a supernova explosion is 1,500 light years. Also, no one knows that this star might do, so know one knows the dangers (if any) to the Earth. However 600 light years is pretty close to us. Should BealtteJouice go supernova and should we in the gamma ray burst path not much will survive. Microbes at depth (caves/oceans) probably have the best chance.
If the gamma rays don't get us then there are all those heavy elements being flung out of the system, planet size debris flying at us hundreds of miles per second. Anything large hits us and it's another bad day for the Earth.
Great. Scientists have assured us that it's safe. They also said we were heading into an ice age in the 70's and going to roast in the 90's.
We're screwed now.