Yes there is a good possibility that Kochab is going to or has gone supernova. The Star is in the right phase and also has sufficient mass to experience a supernova.
However, this has nothing to do with myths or predictions. Nostradamis may have said "It would appear from the experience that Kochab went supernova" but how would he know? As nothing, especially information can travel faster than the speed of light, there is no way he could have known that Kochab had gone supernova without seeing the light as well.
Considering the letter was dated in 1558 and Kochab is only about 120 light years away, we should have seen the outburst in 1678!
This was also one of the way to many basic flaws in the movie 2012 supernova.
Orange.
The star Polaris is at the tip of the handle of the little dipper or Ursa Minor. Kochab is at the end of the ladle.
No, only large stars go supernova when nuclear fusion breaks down. While white dwarfs can go supernova in some instances, brown dwarfs are failed stars which are not powered by nuclear fusion.
Beta Ursae Minoris (Kochab) is the brightest star in the bowl of the "Little Dipper" - part of the constellation Ursa Minor.It has a surface temperature of about 4,030 Kelvin.
Heavy stars go supernova at the end of their lives.
Currently, there is no real way of knowing when a star will go supernova within a few thousand to million years. There are signs, that a star will go supernova based on physics and observations but WHEN is a problem. A star will "pulse" in a "last breath" prior to going supernova, but like death itself, no one really knows, when that last breath will happen. Betelgeuse, is experiencing those "last breaths" but when it will happen, or has happened, we will not know until we see the brilleint outburst from Earth.
From Wiki:126 ± 3 ly(38.8 ± 0.8 pc)
It's quite possible that we MAY see Betelgeuse go supernova. It may have already happened but as the star is over 600 light years away, the light will take a while to reach us.
Thuban, Kochab and Cynosura.
Our sun is to small to go super nova.Super nova's happen when a star explodes. For a super nova, the star has to be atleast 5x bigger then our sun.When our sun explodes, you would just see HUGE FIREWORKS.
Never. A star must be about 10 times the mass of the sun or more to go supernova.
The heaviest element that can be produced prior to supernova is Iron (Fe).