If we lived on a planet circling a star about to go supernova, would we know it was going to happen?
DEE SHARPLES, HONEOYE FALLS, NEW YORK
Published: Saturday, January 1, 2005
There is no clear answer. The seeds of catastrophe that will destroy a star in a supernova are buried deep in the star's heart, but all we can see easily is the surface, buffered by the stellar mass in between. There were images of SK –69°202, the star that blew up as SN 1987A, but no clue in those images of an impending eruption.