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Light travels at 299,792,458 m/s (the fastest speed that ANYTHING can travel), and the Earth is 150,000,000,000 m (1 Astronomical Unit) from the sun.
If the sun were to go supernova (i.e. explode), what would we see from Earth? From my albeit rudimentary calculations, we would see---for approximately 5 seconds (derived by dividing the distance between us and the sun by the speed of light)---the sun either exploding or growing extremely large (into a red giant) before we would be completely obliterated. And what a 5 second fireworks display it would be!
Can anyone back this up or offer a different argument?
2007-04-30
12:03:12
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24 answers
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asked by
Anonymous
in
Astronomy & Space