New Supernova Seen In Nearby Galaxy M82

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...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since no information can travel faster than light, for all intents and purposes and discussions of causality it is happening right now. Since we are just entering its light cone, anything outside of it is inaccessible to us - and always will be.

Re:I hope no one got hurt

[Jeremy Erwin]

Supernovas can affect the biospheres of planets within eight parsecs [wikipedia.org]

Still, that's nothing compared to the hypothetical death tolls in active galaxies.