[meteorite-list] Don't Miss it...The Supernova of our time!

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 19:39:02 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <8CE3D60C9BBEC04-1888-E6A_at_webmail-d033.sysops.aol.com>

Hi Listors, Listees, Listeds and Listids ;-)

No one has posted the great opportunity to see an explosively
fantastical honest supernova !!!

Named: SN 2011fe. It's as big as Earth and as heavy as the Sun, a
white dwarf undergoing a thermonuclear meltdown as we chat, now visibly
seeding future generations of the universe with a generous helping of
meteoritical fodder ...

It will be visible with a heavy pair of binoculars for the next week,
but better a small telescope. The magnitude probably won't get
brighter than 8 (it is currently 10-11 and may not make it past that,
though ... uncertainty in brightness is part of the fun). It is
located in the Pinwheel Galaxy, around 20 million light years away
which is extremely close as these events go.

It isn't the one-in-a-hundred lustra (=each 500 years) supernova of
Biblical proportions that occur in the Milky Way like the last two
around the 1500's - Tycho's and Kepler's Star supernovae. That's when
we get a supernova inside our own galaxy that can be seen during the
daytime for months, but this is likely our only chance so time to play
our hand of cards for what we can, we are probably more fortunate than
most generations. As a matter of fact:

There has been only one observed supernova in the northern latitudes as
bright or brighter since Kepler's and Tycho's, and that was in the
nearby Andromeda Galaxy in 1885. That was while Geronimo was still on
the loose in Arizona and when Louis Pasteur developed a vaccine for
rabies ... but before the Kodak film camera!

With the relationships supernovae have to meteorites and the proposed
event that triggered the formation of the solar system, not to mention
providing interesting elements to the local recycle bin of the
universe's scrap heap, right up to the reason we may have enough heavy
metals to activate the vitamins in our bodies ... this is an event not
to miss.

It is in Ursa Major, in the asterism we call the "Big Dipper" in these
parts, and "The Plough" in the old world and in the Mexican countryside
as well... to find it, use the distal two stars of the asterism's
hangle and make an imaginary equilateral triangle on the side of the
north star. That's where you'll find the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) being
whited out by a single star amongst its millions and millions...

SN 2011fe, ugggg. what a name, let's just call it Joe; Supernova Joe
will respectfully max out around Sept. 11 or 12 and be burning oodles
more than any other star in the visible universe!

Don't miss Joe blow! Put on a Jimmy Buffet song ('Volcano') and watch
the proto-meteorites being formed. that will make scientist of future
eras develop their own classification and fingerprinting systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Supernova_in_M101_2011-08-25.jpg

Kindest wishes
Doug
Received on Fri 09 Sep 2011 07:39:02 PM PDT