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Super Nova Caught Exploding.

Greg

By Greg
in The Astro Lounge

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Greg

Greg

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I read somewhere that some ancient Chinese astronomers saw one of these, the light in the night sky was so bright they thought it was the end of the world!

Can you imagine just sat there one cold winters evening....Nice wide field view.. And Whumpf........ :shock:

Reminds me of that scene in Cone Heads!!!

There would be a few members on line at the same time then me thinks!! :laugh:

I can just see it now.

" Yo guys guess what I just saw.........A Super Nova"....

"Yea, Yea Phatts we all saw it"..... :crybaby:

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FLO

FLO

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Just read about Supernovas on the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Apparantly, there have been several accounts of Supernova visible to the naked eye:

1006 – SN 1006 – Extremely bright supernova in Lupus; accounts found in Egypt, Iraq, Italy, Switzerland, China, Japan, and possibly France, Syria and North America

1054 – SN 1054 – Formation of the Crab Nebula, recorded by Chinese astronomers and possibly by Native Americans

1181 – SN 1181 – Recorded by Chinese and Japanese astronomers, supernova in Cassiopeia most likely left as its remnant the unconfirmed strange star candidate 3C 58.

1572 – SN 1572 – Supernova in Cassiopeia, observed by Tycho Brahe, whose book De Nova Stella on the subject gives us the word "nova"

1604 – SN 1604 – Supernova in Ophiuchus, observed by Johannes Kepler; latest supernova to be observed in the Milky Way

http://tinyurl.com/k3gnt

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Albireo380

Albireo380

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Yes..That the one Daz....I'm amazed you can remember that far back... :wink:

:laugh: Same as you though, 9th Century no-worries. Yesterday??????

Hmm, are you saying you remember back to the 9th Century, Daz. HELP - DAZ IS ONE OF THE UNDEAD!!! A VAMPIRE.

Is that why you like astronomy Daz, a perfect excuse only to come out at night?

Anyone seen the size of his incisors? Are they long and pointed?

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Albireo380

Albireo380

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Hey WH, there are a lot of stars between 430 and 6000ly away - there must be some way of narrowing it down a bit????

Okay, I am not going to lose sleep over it, but should a SN occur nearby over the next couple of decades, it would be nice to know whether to take cover or get out the 'scope.

Oh, on a similar matter - do SNs vary dramatically in the "strength" of their output. If so, then the type of SN would matter as much as the distance. Any idea anyone?

Tom

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Astroman

Astroman

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Been offline for a bit-other commitments sorry. A supernova within 100 ly would be bad for us. Fortunately, there are few stars massive enough within this distance to go supernova. The nearest candidate would be Sirius, but it's not massive enough, not even with its companion. Betelgeuse could go SN, but it's too far away to do any real damage. We might "feel" it in our magnetosphere, much like a CME or x-ray flare from the Sun, but nothing worse. Maybe take out a satellite or two, and put Quebeck back in the dark. :laugh: But nothing worse. Eta Carina is certainly massive enough, but far enough away to not be a concern, (~7500ly). Other stars in that system may mitigate any damage.

I think Steve missed a SN that occurred in Cygnus around the 14th century. The Dark Ages weren't well observed in Europe, (go figure), but there may have been something from the Arabs or Chinese. I'm not sure. maybe I dreamed it...

Rest easy, gents, et al. We're in no danger of turning to cinders by external star catastrophes anytime soon. The closest star is the one to watch, as it swells to giant stage in the next couple hundred million years or so.

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The Warthog

The Warthog

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Astroman, I believe there is a lower limit for the power of a SN, because a star has to have a certain mass to pull it off. Is there an upper limit?

Quebec's been in the dark since the election of Rene Levesque in the 70s. The only way they'd notice is that the mirror balls in the clubs wouldn't light up. :laugh: (Canadian political humour, eh?)

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