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Youngest Galactic Supernova Found, But No Aliens
Simon Howes writes "After searching for decades, astronomers have found a supernova in our galaxy! So it wasn't little green men we were waiting for. It's located very near the center of the galaxy, about 28,000 light years away, and it's only at most about 140 years old. Quote from Bad Astronomy: 'If you're wondering what all the buzz has been about the past few days over a NASA discovery, then wait no longer. No, it's not aliens or an incoming asteroid. Instead, it's still very cool: astronomers have found the youngest supernova in the Milky Way.'" FiReaNGeL contributes a link to coverage on e! Science News; I think Wired's account of the super-hyped tele-press-conference is the funniest.
You beat me to it!!!! Nothing travels faster than light, wouldn't it have to be 28,140 years old???
RTFA
This makes the original explosion the most recent supernova in the Galaxy, as measured in Earth's time-frame (referring to when events are observable at Earth).
After reading the articles, you are correct. It is actually over 26,000 years old, we were just able to see in in the last 140 years.
As with all these article, it is talking when the light became available for us here on Earth to see.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"The supernova explosion occurred about 140 years ago, making it the most recent supernova in the Milky Way as measured in Earth's time frame. Previously, the last known galactic supernova occurred around 1680, based on studying the expansion of its remnant Cassiopeia A."
What that statement means is from the observational perspective of the earth. If it is a 1000 light years away, and we see the event here and now, then it occurred now "as measured in Earth's Time Frame" but actually from the distance, we know the event occurred a 1000 years ago.
www.effectiveelectrons.com "chips that work" Analog, RF, Mixed Signal
NASA is wrong in saying this new supernova is the "youngest" - it is actually just the MOST RECENTLY OBSERVED. The Crab Nebula supernova has it beat as "youngest", exploding occuring only 6500 years ago (and observed less than 300 years ago, in 1731) instead of exploding 28,000 years ago (and observed in 2008).
The light we're seeing from it is actually much, much, much younger then 28140 yrs old if you take into consideration time dilation.
Time dilation? We're talking about light, if you can define time dilation for light-like observers at all (which you can't, really) it would be infinite. The light is 0 years old. So, yeah, I guess that qualifies as less than 28140...
In astrophysics, you generally speak as if something doesn't happen until the light cone hits you. It's a lot more convenient that way.
Not a typewriter
It's not smarmy or smartass to be precise about scientific wording.