Why M82’s New Supernova Excites Astronomers
Astronomers are used to things that change slowly, over millions or billions of years, so when something goes BANG in the sky, we tend to kind of lose it. It’s certainly partially just the novelty, but it’s also because events like this give us a chance – and a fleeting one at that – to watch some of the most energetic and revealing processes in the Universe as they happen.
Life wiped out for about 50 lyrs in all directions! How many border-line white dwarfs are there within 50 lyrs of here?
Not many. In fact, there is an entertaining blog post that suggests that the nearest star that may some day go supernova is 150 ly away. (And at the bottom of that blog post, there are two links to posts about two other galactic dangers – also quite entertaining!).
In fact, there aren’t all that many stars within 50 lyrs. Only about 2000 stars within such a distance from ourselves, most of which are red dwarfs.
Nearby Supernova: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2012/05/18/the_closest_supernova_candidate.html
Atlas of the universe: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/50lys.html
Betelgeuse, Orion’s left armpit, is in big trouble. It would be wondrous if it lit up Super-K and Ice Cube, got Kip Thorne his well-earned Nobel for LIGO, and threw some serious budget toward people looking at the biggest experiment of them all – physical reality.
The US War on Poverty has gone past the $17 trillion mark. We got what it paid for. How large must a disastrous project be inflated before it becomes a good idea? The USSR failed for insufficient application: duration, extent, budget, and will. riiight