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Exploding Star May Be Seen From Earth
fjordboy writes "The star Rho Cas, which can be seen by the naked eye from the Northern Hemisphere, is showing signs that it may be exploding in the near future. Rho exploded in 2000, creating a cloud of gas over 10,000 times the size of earth (which isn't all that large in space scales), however, the same star is showing signs of collapsing which may point to a much larger explosion in the near future, which should be large enough to be seen by backyard astronomers with little to no specialized equipment. MSNBC has more info, Space.com also has the story here and here."
That star must be pretty damn close if it exploded in 2000 and we can already see it.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Not to sound like a lawyer, but ...
Let's make sure we all understand what they mean by "Near Future" after all, "10,000 times the size of the earth" is pretty small cosmologically
10,000 light years away and I'm not holding my breath waiting for the big pop, which the article indicates could come in the next 50,000 years.
But I would assign an undergrad to keep an eye on this daily and be prepared with some high powered [space based] telescopes to capture it's death in all it's glory.
Almost like being there?
What would the cost be to take a picture of this star every day/month and just observe it?
Whew. I wont be needing my crash helmet and lead lined jockstrap.
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Lobel said because of the star's advanced age, it could go supernova in as little as 50,000 years.
So much for being alive when it makes the final boom. Interestingly enough they said that the star had a prior recorded "shedding" of material in the 1940's, which begs the question "Is this normal?" Since it seems like it's getting ready to do it again after 2 such prior expulsions, perhaps this is actually the process of an explosing massive star? Multiple explosions, each more furious then the last until finally it destroys itself...
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There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
Rho Cas, as it is often referred to, is visible to skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere who have dark sky conditions away from city lights, prompting the astronomers to suggest that amateurs might spot the next explosion.
But then they go on to say:
An eruption would pose no danger to Earth, and in fact would likely be spotted only by seasoned skywatchers who know how to navigate the sea of stars surrounding the relatively dim Rho Cas.
There are seasoned skywatchers out there who know how to navigate the sea of stars, and they are amateurs! Amazing, no?
Nova events that are visible to the naked eye don't happen every day, but aren't all that uncommon. In my 20 years of being an active amateur astronomer, I've seen a half dozen or so. Most are very dim and require the use of some sort of chart to tell the nova from nearby stars.
When they are this dim, it is a requirement to get out under dark skys and away from the CRT or LCD.
Nova events that don't get as bright as six or seventh magnitude require some sort of optical aid - perhaps just binoculars - to see. These sorts of events happen all the time.
At mag 4.5 this is a pretty bright star (greek letter named stars usually are pretty bright since they were cataloged hundreds of years ago before the invention of the telescope).
Thus, this one might get bright enough to actually be pretty easy to see. Only time will tell.
After all, as far as we know, some other star has gone supernova and the light will only reach Earth today in the form of an daylight object, or something that is as bright as Venus or even the Moon.
Yes, that's why I said if the Sun were to explode. :)
The model I remember is that the sun will turn into a red giant in a mere several billion years, enveloping the Earth, then contract again. It may never explode because it is too small.
I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the Sun exploding. Having a big meteor hit us is a lot more probable. Well, anything is more probable than an event that is probably impossible.... Far more probable that the errant asteroid is that will all get caught up in a nuclear war, our own little bitty version of a supernova. What are the chances of humans lasting another billion years? Hmm. Probably depends on us.
"Rho Cas is faraway compared to most stars visible at night, more than 10,000 light-years. It is visible because it is among the most massive stars known, 20 to 40 times more heavy than the Sun, and shines nearly a million times more brightly than the Sun. If it replaced our Sun, its girth would consume Earth and Mars."
And from NASA:
"Black holes are the evolutionary endpoints of stars at least 10 to 15 times as massive as the Sun."
So, is this a black hole waiting to happen? I would think that would be a thing of note, yet I don't see it mentioned in the article. They talk about it going supernova, then collapsing, but they don't say into what... Anyone know?
-T
You mean that Rho Cas has already imploded and exploaded. The light FROM the said explosion will reach us in the near future. Since Rho Cas is 10,000 light years away.. it probably exploded 9,980 years ago? how long is the "near future?"
Skymap Pro's telling me that it's 11649 +/- 7856 light years away, so the 10,000 figure isn't necessarily very accurate. I'm not sure which catalogue it's pulling it from.
location
If only we could mount some lasers on stars to project those helpful constellation lines.
come on fhqwhgads
Even supernovae are not exempt. The star Sanduleak whatever, which appears to have been the source of SN 1987A, was a blue star; apparently it had shed its red-giant outer layers as a nebula and had stripped down to little more than its core before it blew.
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...showing signs of collapsing which may point to a much larger explosion in the near future.
It collapsed in 1946 too, returned to its previous magnitude in 1947, and hasn't been stable since.
Ever since then they've said that "It does not have much time left before it grows its iron core and blossoms into the sky as a stunning supernova."
Now I wonder what makes it [going supernova] more imminent now than it was 50 years ago, and how many digits are "much time" in this regard.
...read Robert P. Kirshner's Our Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos. Quite an excellent read, if I do say so myself.
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Are you sure about this? Traditionally, a "nova" occurs when accreting material builds up enough on a white dwarf to retrigger fusion burning, resulting in a rather large "Boom!" as all of the fresh yummy hydrogen goes away relatively rapidly. This isn't really the same thing - the triple-alpha process is becoming unstable inside the star, occasionally shoving large quantities of gas off the star when a large supply of helium reaches the core. It's a "dying planetary nebula", basically.
"Novae" were named because they were "new stars" that showed up out of nowhere (because the white dwarf was originally nowhere near visible) and then disappeared. Rho Cas isn't like that - it's bright enough to be seen normally, but is changing its brightness rapidly.
It definitely looks like it's going to go supernova, though. I don't know its actual mass, so I'm not sure whether or not it's an "absolute given" or not.