A story appeared in the Telegraph yesterday with dubious headline “Earth ‘to be wiped out’ by supernova explosion”. But where was the panic and hysteria? (I suppose the English are too busy to worry about such improbable risks when they have more pressing issues like being buried under a meter of snow and ice, and a South Africa v England cricket match going on, to pay any attention.)
That said, it was a tad irresponsible for the Telegraph to publish that story, writes Ian O’Neill at Discover.com. His article has a bunch of sciencee stuff that you can read if you want to understand how unlikely this explosion really is.
In the meantime, please do not add Supernova Risk to your risk registers. I know this goes against my usual philosophy about adding every risk no matter how unlikely it really is, but if you add this one, you may as well also add the risk of Vogons building a Galactic Hyperspatial Express Route, and then they will put you away for being a Looney.