Quote: As a rule of thumb you don't want to be within 50 light years of something like that if you're not a fan of irradiation.
Okay then, so observing from a distance isn't the issue...
Quote: Well, generally if you're doing that you're a) assuming that the wavefront has already reached Earth without being observed (unlikely, as Betelgeuse
is one of the most-observed stars in the sky) and b) you're travelling *away* from the nova in question.
Sure, there's that, but we haven't seen the blinding flash yet, so...
Quote: If the star *hasn't* gone nova in the 420 years since the last light hit your scopes but you're *expecting* that it went nova at some point in the
recent past, then the *last* thing you want to do is move *toward* the kill radius. That's plain *dumb*. Send probes, send lots of probes.
Pretty much what I had in mind. If they observe no nova on the inbound, they'd stop at a safe distance and let the probes go in from there.
Once they have ascertained that the star has not gone supernova, however, the situation will shift gears dramaticly - it is treated more like an impending
volcanic eruption. They have certain readiness codes, and (to my humble knowledge) once you upgrade from one code-level to the next, there's no downgrading
again. At this point, risks are taken in the name of science. Temporary observation posts are established. They can be quickly taken down at a moment's
notice, but are ultimately disposable (except the scientists, of course). It would be something that I imagine that a lot of scientist in the field of stellar
phenomena would take the risks to see.