# I Watched a star explode **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236 "2013-02-14T00:07:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/41 "2013-02-19T02:57:11Z")
> [@My\_sight](#): > > Yes on such a sensitive subject 😕 “Sensitive subject”? What’s “sensitive” about it? The night sky is about the worst place in the world to try to keep a secret. If you what you mean is that you’re sensitive about being told by people who know more about astronomy than you do that you’re probably wrong in your preferred interpretation of what you saw, well, there’s not much anyone else can do about that. As others have pointed out, you may very well have seen some kind of optical transient or similar effect in the sky, but if you were the only one who saw it, then it was probably a local atmospheric thing, like a meteor. Sometimes, when nobody else agrees with you it’s simply because you’re wrong. > [@My sight](#): > > one more for the haters man the electrical chagre made me hairs stand on end. It wasint moving it wasint in our atmosphere it wasint a meteor. If you really felt some kind of “electrical charge” from this phenomenon, then it was most definitely in our atmosphere. Extraterrestrial radiation doesn’t produce that kind of effect. (Think about it: even the sun, a star that is extremely close to us and irradiates us with huge amounts of high-illumination electromagnetic waves every day, doesn’t “make our hair stand on end” when it shines on us.) ---
**Author:** ![My\_sight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@My\_sight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_sight)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/42 "2013-02-19T03:33:55Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > I like that theory. > > Perspective can be funny when it comes to shooting stars. Someone once said they saw a shooting star shoot up in the sky rather than down. I tried, in vain, to explain that it was simply coming toward him and passing over his head, before burning up. I don’t know why that’s so hard to grasp, but then I also was shocked when I read in Michener’s “Alaska” where the tribe was enjoying the first sunrise of the spring and it rose in the EAST! (doh) (I bet Michener wroteSouth but some idiot editor “fixed” it.) The star/planet turn blue,light blue,white, this took approx two second the ring formed mille seconds before inside matter reached maximum exspanding volocity in this case the speed of light but before this happened the ring emited what in electronic tearms would be arking blue debris about three arks before it and the matter 'inside became impossible to bear.Even the reflection off the yellow cliffs 2-3km away were turned white.It turned day light.Im sure theres some footage on sum cctv but i dont need a replay.Why blue. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/43 "2013-02-19T08:00:47Z")
> [@My\_sight](#): > > Even the reflection off the yellow cliffs 2-3km away were turned white.It turned day light. If the phenomenon you observed was further away than the atmosphere, this illumination would have happened across the half of the Earth that was facing the same way as you - _half the planet_ would have had the chance to notice. Also (and as others have said) - if you saw it expanding in real time, it can’t have been very far away. Even if Proxima Centauri (~4 light years away) blew up, and even if the expansion took place at the speed of light, it would not be visible as movement in real time at this distance. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/44 "2013-02-19T08:06:02Z")
Or to put it another way: Suppose our sun blew up and the expansion of matter took place at the speed of light (which it wouldn’t). It would take more than 4 hours for this expansion to reach Neptune. So an event the size of our solar system would take 4 hours, absolute minimum, to unfold. How big would that event look from even the nearest star? A pinprick. ---
**Author:** ![My\_sight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecccb3/32.png) [@My\_sight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_sight)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/45 "2013-02-19T22:59:20Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > I don’t believe you saw a star in New Zealand explode. > > That would have left a mark. Yes it did a very big atomic mushroom cloud.I was standing on Stanmore Bay beach looking at it after the bang.Open your arms wide using stars as distance reff.Thats about the size of the cloud.It was basicly 8degres north,north east about 28 degres top’‘0’’ if that makes any sense and deeper than you can imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/46 "2013-02-19T23:28:43Z")
> [@My\_sight](#): > > Yes it did a very big atomic mushroom cloud.I was standing on Stanmore Bay beach looking at it after the bang.Open your arms wide using stars as distance reff.Thats about the size of the cloud.It was basicly 8degres north,north east about 28 degres top’‘0’’ if that makes any sense and deeper than you can imagine. If that was an actual star, we’d all be dead. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/47 "2013-02-19T23:29:05Z")
> [@My\_sight](#): > > Yes it did a very big atomic mushroom cloud You’re getting doubters because that’s physically impossible. Any star visible in the night sky is too far away to visibly explode in the fashion you describe - the cloud would be expanding **faster** than the speed of light to match your claimed observations. Further, any such stellar explosion that makes night as bright as day would affect all telescopes, most likely for days. That kind of thing makes the news. It’s possible you saw a meteor explode, but there would be no remnants left of that, either. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/48 "2013-02-20T00:15:55Z")
> [@Learjeff](#): > > but then I also was shocked when I read in Michener’s “Alaska” where the tribe was enjoying the first sunrise of the spring and it rose in the EAST! (doh) (I bet Michener wroteSouth but some idiot editor “fixed” it.) Depends on what he meant by “the first sunrise of the spring.” When I read what you wrote, my assumption was that he meant that at the beginning of spring time, this tribe gets up before dawn to celebrate the sun coming up. And if they celebrate the beginning of spring somewhere around late March, well, on March 20, the sun rises in the due East at every place on the planet. Also, in most places in Alaska, the Sun is visible (if the sky is clear) every day of the year. So if there was a tribe that was actually celebrating seeing the Sun for the first time after a dark period, that tribe would have to be very far north, and this date would still be in January or so, not likely to be very springlike in Nome. So, I think it’s reasonable the way he wrote it. ---
**Author:** ![eltro102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@eltro102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eltro102)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/49 "2013-02-20T15:08:19Z")
> [@My\_sight](#): > > Thanks you are right their was a distinct atomic signiture left. If you hold your arms apart as far as you can ,hold them up to the night sky using stars as a distance reference that was the size of the mushroom cloud left in the galaxy.the amens power of the bang made me yellp abit and sheilding my eyes it turn the yellow clifs of orewa white and to bright to lok at.im sure if i can find the aproxx co-ordernits their will be hevey traces of 'cosmic radiation. I am not worred about the haters who have their veiws.a scientist once quoted all that can be invented has been invented.you dont make quotes unless you known or have seen.one more for the haters man the electrical chagre made me hairs stand on end. It wasint moving it wasint in our atmosphere it wasint a meteor. mushroom clouds only exist in atmospheres, a supernova wouldn’t have a sound, if the gas cloud was that big then it would have been noticed, the electrical charge from it would have been blocked by the magnetosphere anyway (and if it had overwhelmed the magnetosphere, most electronics in your hemisphere would have been fried) ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/50 "2013-02-20T17:31:57Z")
So apparently this is what we can tease out of your poorly structured narrative: 1. June 2006 at midnight 2. Located at Stanmore Bay beach New Zealand, let’s put you at the Brown Bay Marine Centre 3. Visible expansion of debris 4. Brightness sufficient to light the cliffs nearby Lets’ remove what it cannot be right off the bat --\> it cannot be a star. A stellar explosion close enough to light up local cliffs is close enough that _ **everyone on the planet knows about it** _. That is not the case. When stars do explode there is a compression wave that lights up earlier shells of gas but this tends to take years to occur - you don’t see this in real time at the same time the star dies So what can be bright enough to light up a local area and disintegrate and be visible to a small region? A meteor. More specifically June 16/17th is the peak time for both the June Lyrids and the South June Aquilids. Both constellations were low in the NE horizon at the time with the moon just rising to the east. A meteor coming in low and fast would progressively get bigger (possibly lighting up surrounding cliffs given still reflective water in the bay) as it died. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/51 "2013-02-20T19:27:11Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > So what can be bright enough to light up a local area and disintegrate and be visible to a small region? A meteor. Fireworks. (OK, not quite as likely as a meteor) ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236/52 "2013-02-20T19:50:15Z")
Actually that strikes me as a decent explanation. Most people would either sleep through the noise or recognize it as a firework and discount the event. A firework gives us light, changing spectrum, a wide angle explosion and could explain the lack of other reports of odd sky events. Hell even the NZ UFO society has nothing down for June 16 2006. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-watched-a-star-explode/650236.md?page=2)