So when is the supermassive star Eta Carinae going to blow? No one knows. But at 100 - 150 times the Sun’s mass, it doesn’t have much time left. And the presence of lots of nitrogen in the gas surrounding it is a bad sign: that means that the star was making heavy elements in its core, then belching them up into space. By the time a star like Eta Car is making nitrogen, it doesn’t have long left to go. And when it goes, it’ll go.
Due to the similarity of Eta Carinæ and SN 2006jc, Stefan Immler of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center suggests that Eta Carinæ could explode in our lifetime or even in the next few years. However, Stanford Woosley of the University of California in Santa Cruz disagrees with Immler’s suggestion, and he says it is likely that Eta Carinæ is at an earlier stage of evolution and that it has several kinds of material left for nuclear fusion.
Another recent analog star explosion was supernova SN 2006gy, observed starting on Sept 18, 2006 in NGC 1260 (a spiral galaxy in the constellation Perseus) 238 million light years from earth. A number of astronomers modelling supernova events have suggested that the explosion mechanism for SN 2006gy may be very similar to the fate that awaits Eta Carinæ.
It is possible that Eta Carinæ hypernova or supernova could affect Earth nearly 7,500 light years away, but would not likely affect humans directly, who are protected from gamma rays by the atmosphere. The damage would likely be restricted to the upper atmosphere, the ozone layer, and spacecraft, including satellites, and any astronauts in space. At least one scientist has claimed that if the star were to explode, "it would be so bright that you would see it during the day, and you could even read a book by its light at night". [13]
that sure would be interesting to see. 7500 lightyears is pretty darn close for a star, its probably already exploded, and the light hasnt gotten here yet. it exploded about 5000 years before jesus, assuming we see it explode in the next 493 years. the sheer size of space is just... to quote Will Ferrel "mind bottling"
That's right, these posts are the result of the dedicated work of me and a room full of monkeys working diligently on our typewriters.
Squeaky McSqueakums wrote:that sure would be interesting to see. 7500 lightyears is pretty darn close for a star, its probably already exploded, and the light hasnt gotten here yet. it exploded about 5000 years before jesus, assuming we see it explode in the next 493 years. the sheer size of space is just... to quote Will Ferrel "mind bottling"
But since the universe was created 5,000 years ago, you must mean that the light and other radiation from the supernova were created and placed en route to reach Earth to make it appear to be 7,500 years ago.
