cool

[NetSnake]

Link (Science mag)...

Looming kaboom. This new view of supergiant star Eta Carinae is a preview of bad things to come. The composite image, released 20 June and taken in X-ray light by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical light by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the remnants of an explosion that first lit up the night skies nearly 170 years ago. But that was just the warm-up. The star could show it has gone supernova at any time. And because Eta Carinae is up to 150 times more massive than the sun--and only 7500 light years away--the explosion will appear as bright as the full moon in the night sky for days or even weeks.



(Photo: NASA-CXC (x-ray)/NASA-STScI (optical))

[Brian Ellis]

The star could show it has gone supernova at any time ... only 7500 light years away

Guess I'm not going to be around to see it !

[NetSnake]

It could have gone supernova 7495 years ago, no?

[Dr Mordrid]

Hubbles image of Eta Carinae in more detail.

4-5 million times the luminosity of the Sun on a good day.

The polar lobes (aka "homunculus nebula") are from an 'event' in 1841-1843.

When it does go it'll very likely be a hypernova.
Be glad its poles don't point directly at us, otherwise the
hypernovas gamma ray jets would likely fry us, or Earths atmosphere,
even at 7500 l/y. Such events are one form of GRB (gamma ray burst)
and their jets can be 20 degrees wide. Jets can release up to 10^47 joules
in just the first few seconds.

Yes, it very well could have already blown but the light
& radiation just hasn't reached us yet.

[Marshmallowman]

huge explosions that completly destroy anything within an unconcievably large volume of space are SO pretty