December 2012 - Day 8 - Supernovae

On the eighth day of the apocalypse
My true love said to me:
Oh look...
Eight Supernovae
Seven Continents Cracking
Six Hour Long Earthquake
Fiiiiiiive Alieeeeeeens!!!
Four Dinosaurs
Three Hitlers
Two Poles that Shift
And it seems I've become a Zombie.

What:

When stars kick the bucket, they don't just turn pale and keel over.  Well... some of them turn white.  That's called a white dwarf.  But that's what happens when a wussy, little star dies.  And actually, white dwarfs can come back to life and become supernovae, so be careful how loud you call them wussy.  You don't want to give them anything to prove.

When a medium star dies it turns into a neutron star, which has the official scientific classification of "weird."

But when a big star - a REALLY big star - kicks off, it explodes at 10% of the speed of light and roasts everything within 1,000 parsecs of itself.

Where:

Within 1,000 parsecs of here... in 8 different directions.

How:

Now, one supernova would be bad for Earth.  IK Pegasi is only 150 light years away, but we don't have much to worry about from that one for at least another million or so years.  But we also have Rho Cassiopeiae, VY Canis Majoris, Gamma Velorum, Eta Carinae, U Scorpii, Antares, Spica and - yes - Betelgeuse, which are all possible candidates for Supernovae. 

Now, like I said, one of these going off too close to Earth is bad news.

But this is the apocalypse.  We don't stop at one.

Two?

No.

Eight?

Yes!!!

Eight supernovae, all too close to Earth.

How to Survive:

Build a rocket ship that goes 11% the speed of light.

Note - Betelgeuse would make a type II supernova, which needs to be like 26 light years from Earth.  It's like 642.5 light years away.  Don't be afraid of Betelgeuse.  Unless you say his name 3 times.  Then you can be afraid if you want.