<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'><font color="#ff0000">yeah,yeah... i keep hearing that a supernova could threaten the earth millions of years from now not because any potential supernovae are near us but maybe because they could move near us from a differen't location....because stars in space are always moving around.The thing i'm wondering about though is which stars specifically would be within ~30 light years to blow up near us. The only supernova candidates i can think of are currently are IK pegasi, Betelgeuse, Rigel and they are all quite far away. (feel free to add more candidates that i didn't list ...no gamma ray burst candidates please..(ex: eta carinae)will any of these stars be near us in millions of years from now? (ps: i already know that IK pegasi is moving away from us at a speed of 20.4km/s, so really the question is with betelgeuse and regal) <br /> Posted by izzywizz</font>y</DIV></p><p><font size="2"><strong>Hi izzywizzy, both Betelgeuse & Rigel are moving away from us. So are these other monster supernova candidates, Alnitak (Zeta Orionis), Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis), Saiph (Kappa Orionis), Mintaka (Delta Orionis), Mirzam (Beta Canis Majoris), Adhara (Epsilon Cnis Majoris), Wezen (Delta Canis Majoris), Arneb (Alpha Leporis), Epsilon Aurigae, etc</strong></font></p><p><font size="2"><strong>IIRC Antares (Alpha Scorpii) & Deneb (Alpha Cygni) are approaching (not on collision course), but both are far away. </strong></font></p><p><font size="2"><strong>In fact approx 2 million years ago, Mirzam (Beta Canis Majoris) passed only about 30 light years from our solar system & at the time was the brightest star mag - 4.9, visible in the night sky, being about half a magnitude brighter than Venus & was no douby bright enough when well placed in full daylight. Now Mirzam is magnitude +1.9, still quite bright (IIRC 48th brightest star), a few degrees west of the now brightest star Sirius (Alpha Canis Majoris), which unlike Mirzam, only appears so bright due to being only 8.2 light years away, rather than due to immense power (If Mirzam was as close as Sirius, Mirzam would be as bright as the First Quarter moon).<br /></strong></font></p><p><font size="2"><strong> Andrew Brown. </strong></font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p>
<font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br />
<font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p>
<font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>
Dark energy could be getting weaker, suggesting the universe will end in a 'Big Crunch
A video made by me about space and the loneliness in the universe
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