New Supernova Seen In Nearby Galaxy M82 125
The Bad Astronomer writes "A new and potentially bright supernova was just discovered in the nearby galaxy M82. This is a Type Ia supernova, the catastrophic explosion of a white dwarf. It appears to be on the rise, and may have been caught as much as two weeks before peak brightness. It's currently already brighter than magnitude 12, and may get to mag 8, easy to see in small telescopes. The galaxy is less than 12 million light years away, so this may become one of the best-studied supernovae in recent times. Type Ia supernovae are used to measure dark energy, so seeing one nearby is a huge boon to astronomy."
Re:It was on the rise... (Score:5, Insightful)
> I'm always stressing to people at our star parties the light you see is history.
I'm surprised they still invite you. They probably already know.
Re:It was on the rise... (Score:4, Insightful)
Technically, everything you ever perceive is in the past. More often than not, two simultaneous perceptions of the same thing are not even the same past.
How brains manage to correct for both the perception latencies and the action latency, so that we can interact with our environment, is pretty amazing.
Re:I hope no one got hurt (Score:4, Insightful)
White dwarf? The inhabitants had long since resettled, if they knew about themselves.
The sad nature of the universe is that untold numbers of unique lifeforms have been summarily extinguished by the the deaths of their stars for billions of years.
Re:it's not "new" (Score:4, Insightful)
The information is new to us. Take your meds.