The universe just keeps bringing up astounding surprises for our astronomers!
Using a variety of Earth and space telescopes, astronomers found a giant exploding star that they figure has shined about five times brighter than any of the hundreds of supernovae ever seen before, said discovery team leader Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley.
The discovery was first made last September by a graduate student in Texas.
"This one is way above anything else," Smith told The Associated Press. "It's really astonishing."
Smith said the star, SN2006gy, "is a special kind of supernova that has never been seen before."
Observations from the Chandra X-ray telescope helped show that it didn't become a black hole like other supernovae and skipped a stage of star death.
Unlike other exploding stars, which peak at brightness for a couple of weeks at most, this supernova, peaked for 70 days, according to NASA. And it has been shining at levels brighter than other supernovae for several months, Smith said.
And even at 240 million light years away, this star in a distant galaxy does suggest that a similar and relatively nearby star - one 70.8 trillion kilometres away - might blow in similar fashion any day now or 50,000 years from now, Smith said.
My guess is it's an ancient star with different build up comparing to new stars. Too bad they can't be seen in our country . Oh wait, only novas are available in where I live and actually saw one.
This stuff is pretty fascinating, and it makes you feel kinda insignificant when you get a visual comparison to see how big these "big" stars really are.
My biology teacher was talking about this today. She said something about if that star near us blew, it would be bright enough outside to read a book at night. That, or send out a lot of radiation - I thought the radiation was a little bit improbable, considering it is light years away...but you never know.
In response to the signature question, I got my images from Userbars. I put them together by this website.
That, or send out a lot of radiation - I thought the radiation was a little bit improbable, considering it is light years away...but you never know.
I wouldn't exactly worry about radiation from something light years away myself because if there was any real threat at this distance something perhaps "could have already happened" due to all the stars in our galaxy. I would instead be more concerned at the mood our star the Sun is in since it poses a very near and practical threat should it decide to act up.
This stuff is pretty fascinating, and it makes you feel kinda insignificant when you get a visual comparison to see how big these "big" stars really are.
Indeed. The only thing that currently comes to mind is "it's like being a pimple on an elephants ass."
Interesting pic because I never realized or seen that Mars is approximately in-between the size of our moon and the Earth. For some reason I always thought Mars was bigger at least Earth size.
