Come on now....

In reality, we are more endangered by a GRB )Gamma Ray Burst) from WR-104, which has most likely already gone Supernova than this droll. WR-104 is aimed right at us, but being over 8000 light years away, we are a bit lacking on it's exact timing.

Someone on trhe SyFy staff of writers has been on the 'end of the world' websites too much, and needs to concentrate on real science, and real science fiction! - kh

Or, if you want an article that actually provides accurate science:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/100104-aas-close-supernova.html

Wow, an article that has research and isn't an opinionated sack. Finally stepping up, are we? Not by much, but it's a start.

Considering that by the time the light of that star reaches up, it's explosion would have happened thousands (most likey more than that) of years ago. At that point, the blast would have exhausted most of it's likely near-lightspeed radiation emissions due to them being diffused--the farther from a central point two 'objects' at an angle to each other become, the farther away they are in relation to each other. I think the mathematics I'm trying to imply still works. And another celestial body (ID'd or not) could have interrupted their travel.

Interesting theory, but not enough proof or corroborating science at this point. So I'm going to have to agree with divephotog on this one. We don't need to hear about how we're going to die in some horrible, horrible manner in a little under three years from now.
Can we get some better journalism, by any chance?

Honestly, I lose complete faith in the accuracy of any article be that uses made up numbers WTF is "20 billion billion billion" anyway? Last I checked, there is no such number . . .

"Wow, an article that has research and isn't an opinionated sack..."

Really?

" ...supernova several thousands of light years away would have any effect on our ozone layer, which in any case seems to be disappearing quite nicely on its own, with our help."

Not opinionated? Take a drink of the Kool-Aid and move along, the line is backing up.

The article provides little insight (and yes, they should have used scientific notation, but all those billions sounds shocking!. 1.6 x10 to the 41st is not as shocking a number, eh?

Even so, and using 4/3 pi r cubed for the volume that energy is about to fill, one gets over 33000 cubic light years, and the energy equivalent of less than a good solar flare here from our own sun by the time the explosion has filled that area. -kh

Ok im not a science guy, like at all, but well if this star goes supernova well by the time it reaches us wont the "great wave of destruction" have spread really thin??? for a lack of a sciencey description?

But Fearless Leader, we tried to blow up moose and squirrel, we only missed by small distance. Natasha darling, next time we put bomb closer to moose and squirrel. Now, lets go blow up bridge...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/100104-aas-close-supernova.html

Demise, if it comes, won't be anytime soon, however: Scientists' calculations suggest that the star will explode in about 10 million years, said Edward Sion, a member of the research team from Villanova University in Villanova, Pa.

Hardly going to happen in a couple of years then...

That's bull crap! I'll be laughing at all of you believers in 2013, see you then!

Meanwhile there appears to be evidence of a special kind of Super Nova:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/05/hypernova_antimatter_blast/

that can threaten a galaxy. Unfortunately for Trek movie scriptwriters its calamitous effects still can't propagate faster than the speed of light so it would still take it at least 50,000 years to overwhelm a significant portion of our galaxy and any civilization that moves at warp speed would be able to easily dodge it.

I love it when people who know nothing about science try and make dooms day predictions. First if any of these stars were to go supernova in 2012 it would take thousands of years before the shock wave even reached us. And no nearby star has gone supernova in the recent enough past to effect us by 2012, and even if there was a supernova we would have detected it long ago.

"Not opinionated? Take a drink of the Kool-Aid and move along, the line is backing up."

KenMo, where is the opinion in the statement you quoted? You seem to have chugged a ton of red state Kool-Aid yourself.

To WICKEDNICK,
You do realize that we wouldn't know if the star went nova until the light reached earth, and that the destructive gamma radiation caused by a supernova also travels at the speed of light, right?

Now the effects of a supernova from that distance is really unknown, because we haven't witnessed one yet and we don't know how powerful this one may be (or if it will happen any time soon). It could cause pretty lights in the atmosphere or turn us all into The Incredible Hulk, but we'll all find out at the same time.

Will someone at SciFiWire please officially admit that this is a BLOG site now? Especially with half-baked articles like this, which shows a clear lack of in-depth reading by the writers here? If you the actual science article, you'll see that there's no chance for this thing to build up enough to explode and harm us for MILLIONS of years. ("...in about 10 million years, it could have accreted enough mass from its partner to go supernova.")

As usual, blog-level writing--so just admit it so we can stop complaining about the poor quality here, okay? As a blog, it's fine; as a news source, it's a joke.

@numajordomo: If you don't think that "20 billion billion billion" is a real number, you shouldn't be talking about numbers. It's easier and more reader-friendly to write it that way than to list all those zeroes or to put it in exponential form (If you don't know THAT either, look it up). I believe a "billion billion billion" is an octillion, so "20 octillion" would work, but that's even more confusing to people who've never heard of that.

The one thing here I dislike more than SciFiWire's shoddy writing is the ignorant arrogance of so many commenters.

God I hope so. Wait, there is no God, so maybe science does rule after all!

To those complaining about the legitimacy of news reporting here, I've always thought of this as an entertainment website, not a hard news website. I rather think the article was presented as such, and not meant to be taken as vital truthful information. The site is what it is, even if we apply the term blog to it or not.

While I quite agree with the writers of the article and some commenters above that there is about as much cause to panic as there is to think that one of my farts could explode and take the whole planet with it. Yes, they can be noxious, but not deadly.

Now, to say that we're safe because a supernova exploding from that distance would take thousands of years to get here: That's very true, but then so did all the signs we have already observed regarding said star. It is implied they understand relative time. They know that everything they've recently seen really happened a long time ago, and that the predictions they are making are for the future of our vantage point.

Wow, what a poorly reported and shamelessly provocative fluff piece. What's overdue for this star is its regular-interval mini-nova explosion. Scientists say that if it were to go super-nova it wouldn't be for about 10 million years, and then the effects would take another three thousand years to reach Earth.

I say we sit... relax... and have a beer. I would like to wait and see what type of mass hysteria this causes so I can see who I am going to stay away from for the next 20 yrs or so. Is the world going to end in 2012.... some might think so.... I think its a load. But what ever makes you happy I guess.

I don't understand why some people get such a boner for all these doomsday predictions.Remember how people crapped there pants over the 2000 scare?

The Daily Telegraph? Seriously?

Uh, no. See here: http://news.discovery.com/space/will-earth-really-be-wiped-out-by-a-local-supernova.html

"It seems that Sion had used data for a far more deadly gamma-ray burst (GRB) exploding 3,260 light-years from Earth, not a supernova. T Pyxidis certainly isn't expected to produce a GRB. (Gamma-ray bursts are thought to only be generated by a massive star that has reached the end of its life as a Wolf-Rayet star collapsing under its own gravitational attraction.)

"A supernova would have to be 10 times closer [to Earth] to do the damage described," Ray informed me via email."

I recon that aliens are going to invade in 2012 and former FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully could have provented it but the alien plot became to confusing and boring that they decided to let it happen, so our hope now rests with a vulcan who will use the supernova to travel back in time and protect the earth from destruction whilst stopping an enraged alien in a mining vessel in the past, so that we continue living in a slightly alternate reality and would not realise the world ended in the first place, hence nothing would happen, Science fiction is real didn't you know.

What it's about as credible as anything the british tabloids would write lol....

Jez

...Well, on the bright side at least now Hollywood have more fodder for their disaster movies. All of those global warming flicks, nuclear winters, and asteriods were getting kinda old, guys.

In fact, I'd bet my university funding that this has set somebody's fingers typing out a script already.

The only part of the Dailey Telegraph worth looking at is page 3...

For this to pose a legitimate threat, the stellar debris from this supernova would have to travel faster than light in order to cover the distance between us and the star. Modern science is generally anti things travelling faster than light.

Further more, even if it did move faster than light, by the time it got here to do all the damage these folks claim it will do, we will all be dust and the entirety of the SyFy network will be little more than a file in some massive database somewhere.

I'm afraid people are going to have to accept that, once again, the world is not going to be destroyed in a single, momentous event to happen in their self-centered lifetimes.

And this has to do with Sci Fi how?

Really - Reality aside - Supernovas might touch surrounding systems for a while with radiation, but there is no clear path to us directly (like nothing between us and the nova?)
Gravity from planets can effect all types of radiation and magnetic fields flowing our direction, so even such things as gamas would be effected.
4-8k light years away at near light would not really have direct effect anytime near our lives.
And seriously - how do you measure the explosion of something that you have never witnessed first hand?
Specs are good - not speculation
even early math like ours is not always right under all conditions.

wow? We're all going to die! They also said that the polar bears population is diminishing due to global warming...oh wait, I forgot...the Polar Bear population is actually GROWING, not shrinking....If they can't even get that right, what makes you think they can get this right. In the words of Will Smith, I think most scientists are the "stupidest smart people" in the world.

@Paul B: It's a blog

what's apocalyptically significant about 2012 is that it's the 50th anniversary of the missile crisis.

@SCI FI Wire: I clicked on the "News" tab to get here.

If you've changed your policy, clearly state it, and change the name of this page. You people are getting ridiculous.

eto is correct.somewhat The light would reach us yes because it would be traveling at the speed of light but only light can travel at that speed .The shock wave would be reletivley soon after that with the weakend but still deadly radiation and other e.m. energy with it .It still is going to be a really bad day .And btw this all will only happen if the blast is confined like a gamma ray burst .directed at us like a spotlight .any other type of blast will just be visible during the day and probably the night sky for a few hours.

Stellvia of the Universe anyone!!

By SCI FI Wire at 1:28 PM ON 01/07/10
@Paul B: It's a blog

Thank you!!! I appreciate the honesty, and as a blog you're doing just fine! Keep it up! :)

Okay, so this is what you do... in the summer or fall of this year go to one of those furniture outlets where you don't pay for 18 months and do a complete make over in your house!

Just kidding :) ... seriously, don't do that.

http://i49.tinypic.com/px4z5.jpg

gay men becoming straight..it's the end of the world.

Apes shall rule the Earth by the time this shockwave hits!

SciFi, maybe you should check your own science before posting. Supernovas are the very definition of thermonuclear, and often equated to megatons of TNT to give non-scientists a real world comparison. However, I'm not sure a supernova that far away would have that big an effect on Earth. Anyway, we don't have to worry for a few million years, so I don't really care.

It makes sense why you mentioned the tall tale of Ozone layer depletion due to humans.
Being a science fiction site, it makes sense of course.
As Ozone depletion and Anthropogenic global warming, are science fiction.

In case anyone is interested in what a real astronomer has to say about this:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/01/07/no-a-nearby-supernova-wont-wipe-us-out/

OK, time for a little clarification.

A) This isn't SciFiWire's story, it started with an honest-to-God press release by an honest-to-God astronomer who made a stupid mistake.

B) The "Daily Telegraph" isn't the one with topless women on page 3; that's the "Sun". The "Telegraph" is more like the UK version of the "Wall Street Journal". However, the "Sun" also carried the story.

C) On the other hand, Phil Plait covered all of this yesterday, so SciFiWire should have known better by today.