Chris L Peterson wrote:
Not to mention an additional supernova every few centuries going back
many thousands of years, until the observers might reasonably no longer
be considered "human". None of these are precisely dated, of course,
although I'm sure that estimates can be made in some cases where we can
observe planetary nebulas.

Sure. There's the Gum Nebula, for one. That must have been some
supernova!

All of this depends on whether a supernova actually constitutes a
"death" in the sense the OP had in mind. I prefer to think of them as
transforming events. Certainly, the progenitor star continues its
existence, albeit in a quite different form.

I think it can certainly be said that Type Ia supernovae are death
events. And if a star is considered to be a fusor, then the other
supernovae are also death events.

Death, after all, is not end of existence. I too will exist after I
die (unless I'm atomized). I just won't be alive.

Brian Tung
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