Annual reports for the Town of Bristol, New Hampshire

BesidesБЂ«-he gave a nod at the photo of his latest supernova and smiled-БЂњI can still beat them sometimes.БЂ«The question that naturally occurs is БЂњWhat would it be like if a star exploded nearby?БЂ«Our nearest stellar neighbor, as we have seen, is Alpha Centauri, 4.3 light-years away. I had imagined that if there were an explosion there we would have 4.3 years to watch the light of this magnificent event spreading across the sky, as if tipped from a giant can. What would it be like if we had four years and four months to watch an inescapable doom advancing toward us, knowing that when it finally arrived it would blow the skin right off our bones? Would people still go to work? Would farmers plant crops? Would anyone deliver them to the stores? Weeks later, back in the town in New Hampshire where I live, I put these questions to John Thorstensen, an astronomer at Dartmouth College. БЂњOh no,БЂ«he said, laughing. БЂњThe news of such an event travels out at the speed of light, but so does the destructiveness, so youБЂ™d learn about it and die from it in the same instant ...»