Just out of curiosity what would the estimated magnitude be and what could it be compared to? Hypothetically speaking if VY canis majoris went hypernova would the blast look bright from earth? would it also create a really big black hole after that and could that have any effect on our local solar system? Sorry if this is a really nerdy question i'm just curious.
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When VY Canis Majoris goes hypernova you'd be able to read a newspaper by its light at night. You could see the hypernova during daylight hours too.
Whether nor not Earth would be adversely effected is still somewhat open to question. It's entirely possible that VY Canis Majoris would evolve into what's known as a gamma-ray burster which blasts incredible energies into space. That energy is formed into two relatively tight beams, kind of like a lighthouse. If...repeat IF...Earth should be in the path of one of those beams, we could conceivably suffer significant damage to what's left of our ozone layer.
Whether nor not Earth would be adversely effected is still somewhat open to question. It's entirely possible that VY Canis Majoris would evolve into what's known as a gamma-ray burster which blasts incredible energies into space. That energy is formed into two relatively tight beams, kind of like a lighthouse. If...repeat IF...Earth should be in the path of one of those beams, we could conceivably suffer significant damage to what's left of our ozone layer.
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If (big if) VY Cma turned into a gamma-ray beamer, the beam would NOT be pointed at Earth. Spectra analysis has shown the the poles of this star are not pointed at Earth.
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With a typical supernova absolute magnitude of -19, a star at a distance of about 4900 light-years would yield a visual magnitude of about -5. So it's somewhat brighter than Venus.
But hey, this is a back-of-the-envelope calculation. Feel free to correct it.
But hey, this is a back-of-the-envelope calculation. Feel free to correct it.
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White tiny blurred dot, if observed through ordinary telescope.