PTF-11kly, a supernova which was visible from late August through mid September of last year, occurred 21 million years ago in the Pinwheel Galaxy. This supernova was the closet Type Ia to be seen in the last 25 years. Type Ia supernovae are very important to astronomers because they act as standard candles in determining distances to objects very far away. Of course, the distance to the Pinwheel Galaxy, a face on spiral galaxy, has been known for a very long time. The reason for this post is in watching a news report on this supernova I came across some bad astronomy. The following video came from a Fox station, in Minnesota I believe, and focused on the fact that this supernova was so close it could be viewed with simply a pair of binoculars (which is true). The bad astronomy comes between 2:25 and 2:37 in the video.
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/scitech/space/supernova-visible-in-night-sky-sept-12-2011
Hopefully you watched it. Did you catch it? The reporter claims our Sun will come to the same fate and supernova 5 billion years from now! Obviously this reporter has never heard of the Chandrasekhar limit. Yes, our Sun will one day (there will no longer be days as we know them at this time because the Earth will have been swallowed by the Sun in red giant phase, not to mention the slowing of the Earth's rotation will result in longer days) be a white dwarf like the star that supernova'd, but in order for a white dwarf to supernova it must surpass the Chandrasekhar limit of 1.4 solar masses. The Sun will never reach that mass (obviously) and will be a quite stable white dwarf. But then, I think we all know Fox and science don't mix.
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