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UW Astronomers Find A Rare Supernova 'Imposter' In A Nearby Galaxy (washington.edu)

After a star explodes as a supernova, it usually leaves behind either a black hole or what's called a neutron star -- the collapsed, high-density core of the former star. Neither should be visible to Earth after a few weeks. But this supernova -- SN 2010da -- still was.

"SN 2010da is what we call a 'supernova imposter' -- something initially thought to be a supernova based on a bright emission of light, but later to be shown as a massive star that for some reason is showing this enormous flare of activity," said Breanna Binder, a University of Washington postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Astronomy and lecturer in the School of STEM at UW Bothell. Many supernova imposters appear to be massive stars in a binary system -- two stars in orbit of one another. Stellar astrophysicists think that the impostor's occasional flare-ups might be due to perturbations from its neighbor.

31 comments

  1. TheHaikuLover finds a rare haiku right here on /. by TheHaikuLover · · Score: 0

    His erect penis,
    Plugged inside a man's anus.
    He is a faggot.

  2. Re:wtf by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

    That being mostly true, this is an important event pertaining to stellar evolution which is more apt on /. than Donald Trump and shitcoin trivia.

  3. Re:wtf by mukinrestak · · Score: 1

    Meh, I'm not worried about the news quality, it's the comment quality that's gone downhill. Advertisements for the KKK, Mr Haiku about gay sex up above in these very comments, spam of various sorts. How hard is it to have 3 people keep an eye on the -1 comments and delete the spam shit every 15 minutes or so. 3 people at minimum wage can cover a full 24 hour cycle.

  4. I can relate by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Star: *Bwuuuurp* Damn! Excuse me! I swallowed a bit too much interstellar gas.

  5. I think they messed up their dates by dsmatthews9379 · · Score: 1

    The galaxy NGC 300 is 6.07 ± 0.23 Mly away but they are talking about one series of events from less than 5 million years ago, which means we will not know about it for another million years. "they discovered that most nearby stars were created in two bursts — one 30 million years ago and the other less than 5 million years ago."

    1. Re:I think they messed up their dates by fnj · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I am puzzled by that, too, but also by the whole thing. Just to try to get what they are saying straight, they mean most stars nearby to the location of the phenomenon in question, right? Not nearby to earth?

      The thing that amazes me is that talking about stars only 5-30 million years old. To me that seems like like a newborn baby, not even close to a toddler yet! I mean, the sun is 4.5 billion years old and is expected to last a total of 10 billion years BEFORE becoming a red giant, the end stage.

    2. Re:I think they messed up their dates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Astronomical times always refer not to absolute, but to point of view times. It's 30 million years ago and 5 million years ago *in our past*, which means in absolute time (which doesn't exist, but for the sake of the argument) it's 36 and 11 MY.

    3. Re:I think they messed up their dates by saider · · Score: 2

      If you look at the universe as having one frame of reference (which it doesn't) then you would simply add the 6MY to the 5MY to mean that the stars formed 11MY ago.

      Astronomers refer to events as happening relative to when we observe them, so 5MY ago, those stars' first light would have reached Earth.

      Physics 101

      --


      Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
    4. Re:I think they messed up their dates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, the interesting fact is that the larger the star, the shorter the life. They are the like the rock stars of stars, life fast, die young.

  6. BeauHD ignoring submissions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why does this editor ignore submissions and post whatever he wants almost all the time? If all you do is ignore submissions and post your own crap why bother making submissions anymore?

    1. Re:BeauHD ignoring submissions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trying to kill the site... leave him alone ... in 3 weeks after traffic dips he'll realize his news "choices" are shit and give up :)))

    2. Re:BeauHD ignoring submissions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry... he'll accept only submission only from copy-paste site BetaNews and spam-site CSO... that's how they pay bills... have hidden partnerships... and let's not forget the Stack and their 120-word articles...fits in 5 tweets

  7. Re:wtf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it seems that you're missing the good old quality of coments linking to goatse and blue waffle?

  8. was it helium blast? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    or any other possible at further evolution.

  9. How times have changed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many years ago, astronomers noticed that some stars, usually red giants with white dwarfs orbiting them, would flare up every once in awhile. Since oftentimes these stars were, most of the time, too dim to be conspicuous, many of them were uncatalogued at the time that they flared up. So it looked as though new stars were coming into existence, so they were given the name "stella novae" (new stars) which was shortened to "novae" (singular "nova). This was the usual case---matter from a red giant dumps a bunch of hydrogen on a white dwarf, the hydrogen burns very quickly and brightly, and when the reaction is over both stars still exist.

    Then folks realized that some stars blow themselves out of existence. These were named supernovae in contrast to ordinary novae.

    And today we find an ordinary nova in another galaxy, but instead of calling it that, we call it an imposter supernova. I'm offended.

  10. Re:wtf by KGIII · · Score: 2

    You're new here. I'll cut you some slack. The answer is no. Actually, the answer is fuck no. You can browse at a higher threshold if you're unable to just grin and ignore the idiots and trolls. They're an essential part of Slashdot. In time, you'll understand that. They've even been here longer than you. This is you coming into *their* site and suggesting that someone delete *their* posts when you're the new guy.

    Laugh, they don't hurt you. They're words on a screen. Random, pointless, mindless pixels with no harm to you or your loved ones. Nobody really likes them but we accept them because of what that means. That means that we're allowed a modicum of free speech here - without interference from the benevolent overlords. I've known of two posts that were intentionally deleted and I'm actually on my second account (lost the email and wandered away for a while). They were here when I got here. They'll be here, hopefully, long after I'm gone.

    If you can't laugh and/or just ignore them, there's a really good chance you don't belong here.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  11. Re:wtf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, YOU must be new here because everyone here knows that ad hominem attacks are a Logical Fallacy. Go take a debating class.

  12. Why imposter? by The-Ixian · · Score: 2

    This seems to imply that the astronomical phenomenon is trying to pull one over of the astronomer.

    This just sounds like hubris.

    Astronomer 1: "As you can see the supernova ..."
    Astronomer 2: "Wait, doesn't a star turn into a black hole or a neutron star after collapse?"
    Astronomer 1: "...... IMPOSTER!"

    --
    My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
  13. Re:wtf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're leaving out all the SJWs, accusing everyone here of being racists, MRAs, and deviants because we refuse to join the 2 minute hate on video games or males or whatever.

  14. Imposter, Indeed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    SN 2010da was a pretty darned good nova. But supernova? Hardly.

    I wouldn't call it an impostor. Poseur is more like it.

  15. A major correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Supernovae result in either a white dwarf or a neutron star. To date there has been not a single supernova that has been verified to have resulted in a black hole. Given that white dwarfs are quite visible, I can only wonder what the story is really about.

  16. Re:wtf by Maritz · · Score: 1

    You capitalised logical fallacy as if it's a proper noun, but it isn't. In any case - it would only be a fallacy if the parent used it as the basis for dismissing your argument. e.g. "You're a retard, therefore you're wrong." But the parent didn't do that.

    The parent pointed out that Slashdot doesn't delete comments. Valid point. They further pointed out that the whole moderation system is based around the fact that comments are not deleted. Also relevant and pertitent to the point. You were called a retard at this point. Not really that relevant - it's just window dressing/gravy.

    It's pretty funny, given that, that you mentioned he should take a debating class. It looks like you should have listened more carefully when you were at the class you presumably took.

    --
    I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  17. The "other" evolution thread this week in Slashdot by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

    A core-collapse supernova is theorized to produce a neutron star. This type of explosion is regarded as the end stage of evolution of a star much more massive than the Sun having enough mass to fuse heavier elements when it exhausts hydrogen form its core.

    A white dwarf is theorized to be the end stage of evolution of a star much like our Sun. Such stars are not massive enough to end in core-collapse after fusing all the light elements. Instead, they end their lives by intense mass outflow resulting in a "planetary" nebula, and what is left behind is the white dwarf.

    A white dwarf accreting mass from an evolved binary companion, especially a swollen red giant that has expanded its atmosphere, such a star can generate "ordinary nova" explosions (rapid fusion of the accreted matter) that leave the white dwarf behind to "do it again" in the future. A white dwarf that accretes a critical amount of mass, however, explodes with the violence of the Type Ia supernova, a particularly bright "standard candle" used in cosmology research from which "accelerating expansion" and "dark energy" has been hypothesized to describe the evolution of the Universe. When one of these blows, it leaves nothing behind.

    Sheesh, people know as much about stellar evolution as elephant evolution . . .

  18. Re:The "other" evolution thread this week in Slash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what you're saying is a red giant never forgets?