--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "jim_flanegin" <jflanegi@> > wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "Rick Archer" <rick@> wrote: > <snip> > > I don't know the exact time Doug died or wether it coincided > > at all with me walking out the dome around 6.45 - 7pm in the > > evening, but that is my story of having seen (maybe) a supernova. > > > > > > OffWorld > > > > > > Cool story, but I don't think supernovae blow up and fizz > > > out in a matter of seconds. > > > > Not even one? In the whole wide entire universe? > > Supernovae are *stars*, remember...too much Stuff > involved to be done with that fast. > > Could've been something even more exotic, but not > a supernova.
Also, of course, if it *had* been a supernova, the distances are so great it would take the light from the explosion a LONG time to reach us, so it would have actually blown up many years in the past. Distances between stars are measured in light-years, the distance light travels in a year. The nearest star to us is about 4 light-years away. (If the sun were to blow up, we wouldn't know about it for 9 minutes.) Supernovae are typically tens of thousands, even millions, of light-years distant. Whatever it was, though, it was a neat experience.
