- #1
Quotidian
- 98
- 14
I'm a sometime visitor here over the years, and have posted a few questions about philosophy of physics. But I'm now working on a sci-fi novel - actually the genre is 'hard sci-fi', that is, sci fi with a realist edge. Which is what leads me here. I have what I consider to be a good idea, but I want to present it in such a way that the modestly scientifically-educated reader would not harrumph and snort and think 'tosh! Obviously doesn't know a thing about physics.'
So, the question. I'm positing a supernovae event that occurs in an area of space that is 'behind' the Sun. In other words, there's a supernovae burst, not too far distant (I'm positing tens rather than hundreds or thousands of light years) - but at the time it happens, it's on the far side of the Sun, so none of the Earth-based telescopes see it at the exact moment the signal arrives. Of course, they all see it some time afterwards, as the Earth has obviously moved and the supernovae is still there. But at that exact moment when the first light reaches the Earth - the actual explosion event, as it were - the 'line of sight' more or less goes around the Sun, and as a consequence, could easily be confused with solar energy for a period of a few minutes.
Tosh or not? (It is fiction, but as I say, I don't want to founder on some fundamental point of astrophysics.)
So, the question. I'm positing a supernovae event that occurs in an area of space that is 'behind' the Sun. In other words, there's a supernovae burst, not too far distant (I'm positing tens rather than hundreds or thousands of light years) - but at the time it happens, it's on the far side of the Sun, so none of the Earth-based telescopes see it at the exact moment the signal arrives. Of course, they all see it some time afterwards, as the Earth has obviously moved and the supernovae is still there. But at that exact moment when the first light reaches the Earth - the actual explosion event, as it were - the 'line of sight' more or less goes around the Sun, and as a consequence, could easily be confused with solar energy for a period of a few minutes.
Tosh or not? (It is fiction, but as I say, I don't want to founder on some fundamental point of astrophysics.)