Ok, just a general comment on what has been said in this thread about supernova G1.9 etc.
Max posted a comment about a conspiracy theory concerning G1.9. His problem is that he found a NASA site that claimed the picture was an obvious fake. Part of the paper he linked to clearly stated the facts about G1.9. The first thing addressed in the paper was that this was in response to a question about a supposed brown dwarf inside our solar system (60 odd Astronomical Units is within our solar system). The writer points out that it is a lie that has been circulating on the internet, which is quite true. Some people may not believe it is a lie, but that is basically what it is. At the end he says that the attached picture, which is of G1.9, is an obvious fake. Well, it doesn't really look all that real, so I guess if he is used to answering dumb question he might just brush it off that way. In fact it is apparently a picture of G1.9, from the fine folks a Chandra. So Max is making a big deal about the writers error.
One thing that might be noticed about the place the paper was posted is that it is on the Ask an Astrobiologist site. I'm not sure that astrobiologists are necessarily highly conversant with pictures of supernovae, since there is usually not much chance of finding life on one. So the man made a simple mistake due to being out of his area of expertise, and possibly highly frustrated at having to keep answering the same silly questions over and over. I can't see that the result is anything to turn the world upside down over.
Bill Gill
