Did anyone observe a supernova at about 5:55PM GMT????? I saw what I thought was a supernova, can anyone confirm this???
2006-06-30 08:51:19 · 4 answers · asked by hackmaster_sk 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The very wording of your question (describing a single minute and use of the past tense) suggests you saw something else. A supernova will brighten over several days, then slowly dim over a period of weeks.
Apart from that, all the listed supernova on that Rochester site had peak magnitudes of dimmer than 12 (over 600 times fainter than anything visible to the naked eye in absolutely dark skies) You definitely did not see one of those objects.
Perhaps you saw an Iridium flare (or similar phenomenon), or a fireball. Register with the site below, find your coordinates using Google Earth or something (Iridium flares have dramatic fall offs in brightness if you are as little as a few miles from the center) and you might be able to figure out what you saw. The reflection from the flat solar panels of an Iridium satellite as seen from a spot on the Earth can appear from nothing, peak at -8 magnitude (about 430 times brighter than the brightest star in the sky) and then fade from view in a matter of 20 seconds.
2006-06-30 16:33:16 · answer #1 · answered by Mr. Quark 5 · 6⤊ 2⤋
Cool website!! But it's VERY hard to get past just the basic info.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, a star exploded. This star exploded so violently that for a few weeks the star outshone its parent galaxy. This type of explosion is called a Supernova. The last one in our galaxy was 400 years ago, making us about 300 years overdue for the next one. On this web page you will find a list of the currently observable supernovae, along with information on their location, reference images, and their last reported brightness. Most of the supernova information found on this page comes from IAU and CBET circulars and occasionally more data can be found on IAU's List of Recent Supernovae web page.
The last one they have listed:
# 2006dk, CBET 561 discovered 2006/06/25.88 by M. Migliardi (CROSS) Found in NGC 4161 at R.A. = 12h11m34s.35, Decl. = +57°44'26".3
# Located 6" east and 11" north of the nucleus of NGC 4161 (Discovery image) (Confirmation image) (CROSS image (color))
# Mag 16.1 and rising, Type II (References: CBET 565)
2006-06-30 11:06:27 · answer #2 · answered by Miss Anne 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm fairly confident you did not see a supernova. We do not know of any stars nearby that will go supernova any time soon and most that we observe today are located in distant galaxies, and despite their brightness, are only visible in large telescopes.
They are not quick flashes of light. Perhaps you saw a meteorite (shooting star), satellite, or depeneding on where you are, a firework.
2006-06-30 20:11:15 · answer #3 · answered by minuteblue 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, but it seems there would have been news coverage about such a colossal event. Wow, I sure would like to see pictures of it. Depending on how far away it was, it actually happened a long time ago, but we would just now be seeing it. Parts of Europe are no GMT only in the winter, so do you live in Africa? What is the date you saw it?
2006-06-30 10:28:12 · answer #4 · answered by canajoh 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋