I’m talking about an exploding star as bright as the full moon (even visible during the day). Would there be widespread panic? Would superstitious people interpret it as a sign of doom? Or would people celebrate like all the astronomers? Would more people get interested in the strange objects populating our galaxy?

How long will the supergiant star called Eta Carinae survive?

From Wikipedia: Eta Carinae is a stellar system in the Carina constellation containing at least two stars, one of which is a luminous blue variable star. Its combined luminosity is about four million times that of the Sun and, with an estimated system mass of between 100 and 150 solar masses. Because of its mass and the stage of life, it is expected to explode in a supernova in the astronomically near future.

Eta Carinae’s chief significance for astrophysics is based on its giant eruption or supernova imposter event, with its light travelling almost 8,000 light-years to reach us around 1843. In a few years, Eta Carinae produced almost as much visible light as a supernova explosion, but it survived.

Very large stars like Eta Carinae use up their fuel very quickly because of their disproportionately high luminosities. Eta Carinae is expected to explode as a supernova or hypernova some time within the next million years or so. As its current age and evolutionary path are uncertain, it could explode within the next several millennia or even in the next few years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_carinae

Any opinions or thoughts?

Topics: galaxy, massive stars, supergiants, supernova explostions, hypernova