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Supernova May Wipe Out Earth... Someday
Halster writes "And it could take our planet with it. Reported in the New Scientist. Harvard student Karin Sandstrom discovered the star while researching a paper. It's named HR 8210, and is a white dwarf about 150 light years from our planet, that's 10 light years short of the 160 to 200 theoretical light years thought to be a safe distance from a SuperNova. Left alone it won't turn SuperNova, but it's parked next to another Sun that will "Very soon" turn into a red giant star and expand lending mass to the HR 8210 which will then push HR 8210 over the edge and go SuperNova on us. Course "Very soon" to an astronomer is hundreds of millions of years. And by that time the two stars will likely have moved away from the earth. So don't jump into your escape pod yet." Update: 05/23 20:16 GMT by M : Heh. It seems New Scientist didn't get the story quite right. :) Read the correction below.
Astronomer (giving a lecture in a planetarium): "And in about 2 billion years, the sun will exhaust its fuel supply and explode, consuming the earth and all the planets."
Woman in audience: "Excuse me, did you say 2 billion years?"
Astronomer: "Yes, 2 billion years."
Woman: "Oh, what a relief! For a moment I thought you said '2 million years.'"
Supernova May Wipe Out Earth... Someday
And it could take our planet with it.
Err... am I missing some key distinction here? Last I checked, "Earth" and "our planet" were one and the same.