Kevin's Watch

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18523377/

I'm in serious awe of this. It's already difficult to grasp something as cataclysmic as a "regular" supernova, but this one is off the charts.

...the supernova was 100 times more energetic than usual. Such a phenomenon would require the violent destruction of a star 150 times more massive than our sun — which is near the theoretical limit for a single star's size.

Theorists had thought that stars that big were more likely to collapse completely into black holes, sucking all their mass into gravitational sinkholes.

That's what I had learned, too - that stars beyond a certain mass would always implode into black holes rather than going supernova. But now scientists will have to adopt a new explosion mechanism to explain this mother of supernovas. Wow.

But the findings also raise the possibility that Eta Carinae, the most massive and energetic star observed in our own galaxy, could blow up in the same way.

It's only 7,500 light-years from Earth, or about 45 quadrillion miles away — which may sound like a long way in earthly terms, but isn't all that distant for a cosmic supernova.

That seems uncomfortably close...

It's only 7,500 light-years from Earth, or about 45 quadrillion miles away — which may sound like a long way in earthly terms, but isn't all that distant for a cosmic supernova.

That seems uncomfortably close...

7500 light years sounds pretty far to me. Lets see the amount of distance it would take light to travel in 7500 years.

I'm just trying to spread a little paranoia and panic here. What's with the level-headed, rational perspective, mr. party pooper?

But, yes, if Eta Carinae were to blow up, it would just mean we Earthlings would have something else in the sky to look at besides the moon.

OMG!!! We are all going to die!!!! Run for your lives!!!!

I love it when bits of unexpected news like this pops up. We humans take some pride in the fact that we've learned so much about our world and the limitless space that surrounds it. We always seem so dad burned sure of ourselves, our knowledge. When I think of the mind boggling vastness of the universe my most immediate realization is simply this...compared to what we have yet to learn, we don't know jack.

Matrixman wrote:I'm just trying to spread a little paranoia and panic here. What's with the level-headed, rational perspective, mr. party pooper?

But, yes, if Eta Carinae were to blow up, it would just mean we Earthlings would have something else in the sky to look at besides the moon.

I think it would be somewhat worse than that. An old (90's) astronomy book of mine says that stars' brightness increase by more than 20 magnitudes when they supernovae. If this one is 100 times more bright than my old book thought it could be, that would be another 5 magnitudes. Eta Carinae has an apparent magnitude of 6.2 now. If it supernovaed, it might be around a -20. For comparison, the sun is -26.8, and the full moon might be around a -13. And given that supernovae produce a disproportionate amount of short-wavelength (UV, x-ray, gamma) light, we might be well advised to stay indoors for a while.

aTOMiC wrote:I love it when bits of unexpected news like this pops up. We humans take some pride in the fact that we've learned so much about our world and the limitless space that surrounds it. We always seem so dad burned sure of ourselves, our knowledge. When I think of the mind boggling vastness of the universe my most immediate realization is simply this...compared to what we have yet to learn, we don't know jack.

I disagree. While we may discover new phenomena like this star, we have already discovered the major mechanisms by which the universe and life work. Even this star is just a difference of degree compared to our previous knowledge.

I don't want to make the naive argument that we won't be completely surprised by future discoveries . . . but look at what we DO know: life is formed through evolution. DNA is the genetic blueprint of biological life. We have physical theories that explain everything from the large-scale universe (relativity) down to the microscopic scale (quantum mechanics). We're damn close to a Grand Unification Theory. We've figured out most of the mysteries mankind has been puzzling over for 1000s of years. Most of the advancement this century will be in working out the details of genetics, quantum theory, and computer science (AI). We will develop new technologies based on these three "pillars" of knowledge. But those pillars won't change--nor will we add significantly to our knowledge base in terms of a new pillar. Genetics, quantum theory, and computer science will allow us to master physical--and possibly mental--reality.

I seriously doubt any new revolutionary science will over turn these three. There will be nothing like Einstein's revolution which comlpetely reinterpretted the Newtonian universe, for instance.