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The Nearest Supernova Candidate To Earth: IK Pegasi
The Bad Astronomer writes "What's the nearest star to Earth that can explode as a supernova? Spica, at 260 light years away, is the nearest massive star that can explode, but IK Pegasi — a Sirius-like binary composed of a normal star and a white dwarf — will also one day blow. At a distance of 150 light years, it's truly the closest supernova candidate. Happily, that's too far away to damage the Earth when it goes off — and it won't explode for millions of years at least, by which time it'll be even farther away. Either way, we're safe... for now."
Will it be, at least, pretty to look at?
Sure, but remember to be careful with your remaining eye.
Until some idiot drops a wormhole, connected to a blackhole, into some star... Then we are all screwed..
What kind of news is this ? Not even pending doom in 100 million years ? Do you guys know anything about news ?
I am shocked that they aren't hyping this up. Think about all the doomsday preppers they could have created if the radiation from a supernova would bake the planet.
Oh well, there are still a hundred other ways human life on this planet might get wiped out.
I'll have to go down to the local planning office in Alpha Centauri and see if they've got a permit for a supernova that close to the planned hyperspace bypass...
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
Wow! Thank Gawd for that! I mean, I can finally sleep at night again knowing we won't be roasted by a supernova. Truly that loomed the largest of all for me, right after the thought that my house sat on top of a supervolcano. How could I survive that? I'm not Pierce Brosnan after all.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I thought Eta Carinae was the one we were supposed to worry about. It blew off an outer layer in the 1800's. It's supermassive and it is due to go any moment now. In fact it may have already blown and we're just waiting for the news.
And near can mean a few different things in space. Which would you prefer, being a foot away from a firecracker or a mile away from a nuclear bomb?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
As mentioned in the article, it may currently be the closest star that is a candidate for going supernova eventually, but it's not the candidate for the closest supernova, since it's going to be a lot further away from us by the time it's able to explode, and other candidates will either have moved closer, or will have moved away less.
This is news?
So what? the nearest star that can explode as a supernova? What good will knowing that mean if it's millions of years away?
The RIGHT question is:
What's the closest star we can SEE with the naked EYE go supernova that has a reasonable chance of any of us slashdotters viewing in our lifetimes. That IS important as it matters to the average person who might just look up.
Children tend to play with toys in their crib first.. then with the ones in the neighbors backyard.
Just say'in..
But we're a habitually meddlesome species.. we can't see to leave well enough alone.
While we're workin on the stellar engineering degree there's bound to be a few.. "whoopsies"
I'd have to say that if this criteria is for a "supernova candidate", the nearest supernova candidate to us would be THE SUN. Because it's bound to go supernova one day, just like every other star in the universe.
The next nearest supernova candidate would be proxima centauri. But it probably won't cause any damage to the Earth either, and probably isn't likely to go off for a few million years either.
Damn, I should've been an astronomer - if this is all it takes to "make news".
Insanity is a gradual process; don't rush it.
Ok, I googled wr 104 and the latest opinion is that we're not looking down the barrel of a gun. Just wait until some new observation says we are, or we find out the hard way that we are.
In theory, theory and practice are the same; in practice they're different. (Yogi Berra & A. Einstein)
The issue isn't the physical damage from the expanding nebula but the intense energy (mostly gamma-ray) burst that happens when the star collapses. Basically anything within a few hundred light years gets hammered by a shotgun of energy if it's aligned with the poles of the star.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst
http://f64.nsstc.nasa.gov/gbm/
More reading on our monitoring attempts, though anything that would hit us would be noticed pretty much about the time it hit us.
fuck off bmo you ignorant goatfucker
You will have proof in 150 years.
We don't have to worry about no stinkin' supernovae. Even at the speed of light those nasty gamma rays won't catch us, because by the time they get here we will be so, what's that word, oh yeah, extinct.