From Superstars to Super Crashes
Sometimes, looking at news on Google can take you on a trip. At times, it can be good and informative. Other times it can be really bad... Yet the best trips are ones that start bad and end up awesome.
Take this article: Stargazing: In Search of Superstars by the Camden Courier. Personally, articles like this get on my nerves. First off the title is misleading. No where in there is there information about searching for superstars, just really mentioning the really odd one we know about: Tabby's Star. You know, the one that might potentially have a an alien race harvesting it's energy with a megastructure. And the article does not actually talk about any of the theories other than a passing mention. It is like someone said "Hey, we need an article about stars this week!" and the author just grabbed the nearest headline. I mean, they even threw in a closing remark about two stars colliding in 2022 that will be bright enough to be seen in daylight, like that would convince us that there was a point to the article.
Wait.... two stars colliding? In my lifetime?.. Ok.. so this warranted further investigation. Unfortunately the article didn't say what the stars were... and I have never heard of it even though I am always lurking around the Science News and get alerts about such things... But.. a quick Google search revealed the following from Astronomy.com
In 2022, there will be a spectacular sky show. Two stars will merge into one, pushing out excess gas into an explosion known as a red nova. At magnitude 2, it will be as bright as Polaris in the sky, and just behind Sirius and Vega in brightness. The collision in the constellation of Cygnus will be visible for up to six months.
Of course this is an estimate, and it quite possibly will not happen, but if it does, it will be the first time scientists have predicted a Nova.
I missed this article back in January, and because of a sub-par article, I learned something I didn't know before and am now quite excited about. It is a good day.