This is true. I was in a very remote, dark area. We were stargazing and the Milky Way stretched across the sky. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I saw a pinpoint of light grow many times in magnitude and then snuff out. My question is: Is it possible it was a supernova, or should I be looking closer to home; i.e. a satellite that exploded. How can I check ? How can I report it ? It happened around 7:55pm PST.
2007-10-16 18:02:50 · 9 answers · asked by Dan H 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Iridium flare! Very pretty, quite frequent. Here is a site that will tell you when and where to expect the next one:
http://www.heavens-above.com/
From my location there will be ten potential flares in the next seven days.
Potential because the site assumes a certain orientation for the satellite. If it happens to be rotated for some reason, the flare won't be visible at the given location.
2007-10-16 19:30:25 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
It wasn't a supernova. Supernovae actually last for several weeks while they go through a sequence of sudden brightening and gradual fading. Most of them occur in other galaxies and as such are not visible to the naked eye.
Get the lowdown from an authoritative source (and check the article's references just in case!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova
As for what you saw - beats me. I only know one of the things it wasn't: a supernova.
injanier's idea of a satellite reflecting sunlight is a pretty good guess. The light comes and goes because the satellite is tumbling in its orbit and doesn't always face the same way.
I could offer a suggestion at this point: whenever you describe something like this, you might want to add a little more detail than just "All of a sudden, out of nowhere..." and "7:55p".
Other information that would help: where on the planet were you? In what area of the sky was this thing seen? Straight up, near a horizon, which horizon? How long would you guess it actually lasted? All you said was that it grew in magnitude many times and "then snuff out".
Here's a very important one: was it moving? Let's say it was and you pointed a fist at arm's length in its direction. How long would it take for the object to move from one side of your fist to the other? What direction was it moving in? (That will help the scientific folks figure out what its angular velocity was).
Trust me, that stuff becomes automatic after a while.
Have fun with that article,
Big Al Mintaka
2007-10-17 01:15:07 · answer #2 · answered by almintaka 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Possibly you saw an exploding meteor or bollide. Its not that uncommon and some of them are very powerful explosions. They can be mistaken for nuclear weapons blasts. You don't hear them since they generally explode too far up in the atmosphere. I have seen a couple from start to finish, and several others partially, and they illuminate the entire sky for several seconds. Back in the early 60s during the worst of the missile crisis I had a paper route very early in the morning. Several times I witnessed the entire sky suddenly illuminated, bright as day. After the first one turned out not to be Miami going up in nuclear flame, I learned to ignore them. You probably saw a small one on a trajectory towards you since you didn't see a tail.
2007-10-17 10:02:19 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Injanier is right. It was an Iridium flare. If it had been a supernova it would still be brightening, and would be in all the newspapers and all over the internet. There hasn't been a supernova in our galaxy in the last 400 years. The last one anywhere close was in the Larger Magellanic Cloud in 1987.
2007-10-17 09:38:56 · answer #4 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm sorry, but it wasn't a supernova. I actually do research discovering supernova at UC Berkeley. If you saw it in the milky way, we would all know, it would be very bright! It would last more than just a minute or so. SNs last weeks to months. Supernovas happen approximately once per century per galaxy.
I hope this helps!
2007-10-17 02:42:35 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Most likely you saw a glint of sunlight reflecting off a satellite. The Iridium satellites are particularly good at this and you can google up sites that will give times for your area. A supernova would continue to brighten for several days and remain bright for several weeks.
2007-10-17 01:13:07 · answer #6 · answered by injanier 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
it,s like a burst of light then blackness it cool sometimes you may be the only to see it or it may be on line stars people will say its on line ,,goood luck
2007-10-17 03:41:37 · answer #7 · answered by rocketman 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was lucky enough to witness a supernove about 8 years ago. I didn't know what it was but it was in the newspaper the next day.Congratulations!
2007-10-17 01:06:53 · answer #8 · answered by bigclaire 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
May of been a meteor shower.
2007-10-17 03:37:11 · answer #9 · answered by Tony W 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋