Word: brightest
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...binoculars, clearly saw the exploding star, or supernova. While hundreds of supernovas occurring in incredibly distant galaxies have been spotted by powerful telescopes, this was the first one visible to the naked eye since 1885. More important, at a distance of only 170,000 light-years, it was the brightest one to appear in terrestrial skies since...
...into the red end of the visible spectrum. Also surprising was 1987A's low luminosity. "If it had lived up to its initial expectations," says Williams, "it should have increased its brightness to a magnitude of around 1 to 0." (A lower number means a brighter star; Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, has a magnitude of -1.5.) That would have made it look nearly as bright as the brightest stars in the night sky. Instead, the supernova rose only to a magnitude of 4.5 -- equivalent to that of a medium-bright star -- but then stopped and hovered around...
...Crab supernova was, at its brightest, as brilliant as the planet Venus and visible during the daytime; its appearance was noted not only by the Chinese and Japanese but possibly also by Indians in the American Southwest. The New World evidence comes in the form of images carved and painted on rock walls in northern Arizona showing a celestial object adjacent to a crescent moon. There is no proof that this primitive artwork represents the supernova, but archaeological dating techniques show the Indians were in the area when the star flared, and astronomers have calculated that the supernova indeed appeared...
COVER: The brightest supernova...
...that distance, close by astronomical standards, it could be one of the brightest stars in the sky when it peaks in intensity, perhaps as early as next week. (While it is clearly visible in the Southern Hemisphere, even Hawaii is too far north for much of a view.) The star will be the brightest supernova observed since 1604 and the only one visible to the naked eye since 1885. Says University of Chicago Astronomer W. David Arnett: "This is probably the most important thing that's happened in astronomy since 1604. It finally gives us a way of testing ideas...