This may have already been asked somewhere and i apologise if it has, but i've just started listening to the astronomy cast podcast (which are brilliant by the way!) and i just had a quick question..
Do we get any supernova's in our own galaxy? and if we don't what would happen to us if one occoured (reasonably) near to us?

thanks

Welcome to Baut. It is my understanding that many stars have died/exploded (aka supernova) in our galaxy. If one happened near to us lets just say we won't be able to type posts here any longer once it's radiation bath gets here. the surface of the earth would be drastically changed and stripped of life. But no fear, there is no star near us that is large enough to become a supernova.

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We should be having one every fifty to a hundred years, but most of them seem to be hidden but dust, or the frequency estimates are too high. We have had four known ones in the last thousand years.

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i see, thanks for the replys..
i would imagine that they would be pretty amazing to see from a safe distance.. we'll have to hope i suppose!

You may want to have a look at this recent thread and this website.

The information posted at http://www.space.com/scienceastronom..._020610-1.html is pertinent to your question.

Here are a few more good websites on supernovae.

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...ro/snovcn.html

http://www.supernovae.net/

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/sc...upernovae.html

Dave Mitsky

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