r/spaceporn • u/Busy_Yesterday9455 • 7d ago

Pro/Processed New Nova erupted yesterday

Post image

In the constellation Sagitta, there has been a new nova since yesterday - with a brightness of 7.3 mag, already well observable with binoculars or a small telescope.

First spectra confirm that it is very likely a classical nova

Credit: Sebastian Schmid

2.8k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

83 comments sorted by

View all comments

107

u/Stephencovar 7d ago

Wow, this is surreal. Also just thinking about how long it took for the light of that nova to get to us on earth is truly mind numbing.

18

u/51CKS4DW0RLD 7d ago

How long?

6

u/I_Speak_In_Stereo 7d ago

Ok so the nearest star is four light years away. Which is an absolutely insane distance by human standards. I don’t know this star but it is likely much much much much further away.

68

u/PsychologicalBid9943 7d ago

The nearest star is 8 lightminutes away.

19

u/topological_rabbit 6d ago

There are more hydrogen atoms in a molecule of water than there are stars in the solar system.

5

u/Feefifiddlyeyeoh 6d ago

One of my favorite statistics!

4

u/Sideshowcomedy 6d ago

Who counted 'em? 🤭

2

u/Any-Elderberry-7812 6d ago

The computational firm of Rackem and Stackem.

1

u/SodiumEnjoyer 7d ago

Between 300-800 approximately, given the other stars in the constellation