Now we turn to some real science. Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Texas recently described observations of a very large supernova. The New York Times has a good article about it. It is apparently the largest supernova ever observed and was a star about 150 times the mass of our Sun.
A press release from UC Berkeley points out:
Unlike typical supernovas that reach a peak brightness in days to a few weeks and then dim into obscurity a few months later, SN2006gy took 70 days to reach full brightness and stayed brighter than any previously observed supernova for more than three months. Nearly eight months later, it still is as bright as a typical supernova at its peak, outshining its host galaxy 240 million light years away.
The NY Times article describes what we might experience if a very similar star in our own galaxy, Eta Carinae, were to die in a similar fashion:
Eta Carinae could blow up sooner than we thought, Dr. Smith said, noting that it could be tomorrow, it could be thousands of years from now. Astronomers have no way of telling.
Even if it did blow as the new supernova did last fall, at a distance of around 7,500 light years, Eta Carinae would be unlikely to cause any serious harm to Earth, astronomers said. The explosion would be visible in the daylight and at night you would be able to read a book by its light.
