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Supernova Discovered
hey! writes: "A supernova was found last Wednesday in the M74 galaxy (announcment can be found here :http://www.aavso.org/newsflash/nf904.shtml. It is not visible to the naked eye, but was discovered with at 10 inch telescope and is getting brighter -- it may be visible in amateur instruments as small as 4", according to Lew Gramer of the IAAC list. More information is available at seds.org including a very nice before and after picture."
You owe your life to supernovae, since that's the only way (known) to enrich the interstellar medium with heavy elements, like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc. It's hard to imagine anything affecting your life more than that which made you possible.
Well, if it continues to get brighter, you might be able to get out and see it with a pair of binoculars, or maybe even your bare eyes. Would it make a difference in your life?
It depends on you.
Some years ago, I got out on a cold winter morning with my girlfriend (no my wife) to see Haley's comet. It wasn't nearly as spectactular as Hyatuke, which in turn was no great shakes unless you were accustomed to looking into the skies. Did it change my life?
Well, sort of.
It didn't get me a better job, so I could buy a larger TV and Tivo. But I did get to see something my ancestors had seen, century after century, and knowing as they did not know that it connects me with them. I did see the dirty ball of ice that caused apocalyptic hysteria every 75 years in the dark ages, that raised and lowered the curtain on Mark Twain's life. To understand this thing obeys the universal laws of gravitation, Kepler's law, that in a few decades it will return to the mysterious and unexplored outer regions of the solar system, reach its apogee, and slowly turn and begin to pick up speed to come rocketing through the inner solar system. To wonder if I will be there to see its return with my children, grandchildren and great grand children (there's a small, small chance I will be alive if I live to be 99 and keep my eyesight).
People spend a huge amount of their lives to pay for the acquisition of goods that they think make a difference in their lives. Perhaps your passion is fast cars, high fidelity audio equipment, cameras or video equipment. Nobody questions these passions. My passion to see things for myself. To see the gossamer web of the M44 beehive; the struggle of an adult insect emerging from its chrsalis; the great equatorial belts of Saturn under the shadow of the rings; the chocolate brown dusty layer containing the Iridium anamoly of the K-T boundary in the Montana badlands; the shimmering of bioluminescent plankton in the summer seas; flocks of birds swooping and surfing each others wake on invisble air currents.
Does it make a difference in my life? Yes.
Would it make a difference in your life?
It depends on you.
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