XPost: europa.sci.spatio
*Scientists have new tools at their disposal to detect and study the
dramatic explosion of a star*
Imagine that you’re an astronomer in the early years of the 17th
century. The telescope hasn’t yet been invented, so you scan the night
sky only with the unaided eye. Then one day you see a remarkable sight:
A bright new star appears, and for the next few weeks it outshines even
the planet Venus. It’s so bright it can even be seen in broad daylight.
It lingers in the sky for many months, gradually dimming over time.
That’s what the German astronomer Johannes Kepler saw in 1604;
skywatchers elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East and Asia saw it too.
We now know it wasn’t really a new star but rather a supernova
explosion—an enormous blast that happens when certain stars reach the
ends of their lives.
The 1604 event was the last time that a supernova appeared within our
Milky Way galaxy. Or at least, the last one known to have been
observed; it’s possible that there have been other nearby supernovas in
the interim, likely obscured by intervening gas and dust. Astronomers
can also view the remains of long-ago supernovas, such as the crab
nebula, whose light first reached Earth in 1054. The next best thing to Kepler’s supernova in recent years was the supernova sighted in the
Large Magellanic Cloud, a small companion galaxy of the Milky Way, in
1987 (and designated 1987A). Astronomers have also recorded many
supernovas in other galaxies; these are visible telescopically but
would have been entirely missed by skywatchers back in Kepler’s day.
In other words, it’s been a long wait—418 years since we’ve seen a star explode in our galaxy. So are we overdue for a bright, nearby
supernova?
(continue)...
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-will-the-next-supernova-in-our-galaxy-occur-180980422/
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