VY Canis Majoris = BOOM!

[mrt127]

What do you think will happen if VY Canis Majoris goes nova and when will it happen?

I know it is the largest know star so I'm guessing it's life span is millions of years.

I am also guessing that it will end that way.

I am also guessing it will be a Hypernova.

[FiahOwl]

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[blotz]

But then again, we will have much better tech in 100,100 years, (if we still exists) and we might be able to deflect it if needed somehow.

[smjjames]

Since hypergiants produce the most massive explosions ever, it will definetly be epic. Astronomers may have witnessed hypernovas that could be bigger, but all of those are outside our galaxy, this one would be the biggest one that we can observe up close, ever.

[dhm794]

Couldn't it have already exploded?

[smjjames]

Even if it exploded right now, we still wouldn't see it for 4,900 years as that's how far away it is.

@bong: It's 4,900 light years away, so we are safe. We'll still get a spectactular lightshow though I think. Any planets unlucky enough to be too close will have to be shielded though.

[vh]

well according to some fomula and -20-5(1-3.14) it'll be magnitude -9.3
..that doesn't seem quite right, should be brighter. i'll look at it again.

[mrt127]

Perhaps one day we could harness the power of stars.

[dhm794]

well according to some fomula and -20-5(1-3.14) it'll be magnitude -9.3
..that doesn't seem quite right, should be brighter. i'll look at it again.

It's not that close, and you can barely see it with a standard optical telescope.

[blotz]

Even if it exploded right now, we still wouldn't see it for 4,900 years as that's how far away it is.

@bong: It's 4,900 light years away, so we are safe. We'll still get a spectactular lightshow though I think. Any planets unlucky enough to be too close will have to be shielded though.

In 100,000 years, there might be another hypergiant star closer to us. 100,000 years is a loooong time (36,500,000 minutes [ http://www.easysurf.cc/utime.htm#y365d ]).

[vh]

If a star like betelguese or vy canis majoris went supernova where our sun was, the reflection of light off the moon would be magnitude -72

edit
i meant 1 trillion trillion times brighter than the sun. ouch