Betelgeuse

[Tom]

Habemus plus vis computatoris quam Deus - Interesting times in the sky

Don't worry, nobody will die, but we may just get to see something fairly spectacular in our lifetime.

 

[Ch3tan]

Cooooool!

Would be nice if their speculation comes true.

 

[Raven]

Those gamma ray bursts sound fucking scary though, they were described on a Stephen Hawkin program the other day. Though apparently there is no threat of that hitting us from this star.

Anyway, I hope it does go up soon (or at least I hope it went up 500 years ago or so) would be something amazing to see.

 

[old.user4556]

Awesome Tom, I've always liked astronomy.

Does anyone else wonder what it would be like to be around to witness the death of the Earth? I find the thought incredibly disturbing.

 

[Raven]

As in it being swallowed up by the expanding sun before it goes supernova or when the radiation kills us?

Yeah it would be disturbing but if (and this is a big if) humans are still around in 4 billion years, I doubt they will care very much, or be anything close to human.

 

[Scouse]

Lets hope the unnamed source is right eh? I'd love to see that

 

[Zenith.UK]

I just had a conversation about this and I was coming up with scenarios about likely effects.

Bear in mind that any effect would be diminished by the distance. Intensity of light diminishes by the inverse square of the distance. We receive 1/9th the intensity of sunlight that Mercury does because we're 3 times further away (3^-2=1/9, thanks Wiki).
The Sun is 8 light minutes away.
Betelgeuse is 284,018,400 light minutes away (x35,502,300 further away than the Sun).

We wouldn't get blinded, but there would probably be enough light to read by at night.
Depending on the particle flux, there might be enhanced aurorae and effects on satellites.

Until I see more observations and "proper" data regarding this, I'll keep it in mind as a curiosity. If data beasrs out what he's saying, I'm definitely interested.

 

[Tom]

06.09.2009 - Red giant star Betelgeuse mysteriously shrinking

 

[Zenith.UK]

I just read the comments and love the idea of calling it "The Ivanova Supernova".

"No boom today. Boom tomorrow. ALWAYS boom tomorrow"

YouTube - Babylon 5 - 1.15 'Grail': Ivanova with perspective

 

[Zenith.UK]

Okay, I'll consider it legit.
Betelgeuse: The incredible shrinking star? - space - 10 June 2009 - New Scientist

 

[chipper]

would love to see a supernova in the sky albeit one thats no where even remotely close to us cant imagine what it would be like but i am sure it would be one of the most amazing things ever witnessed

 

[TdC]

it should be visible by day when it does. will be awesome, but make no mistake it will bring the nutters out in droves.

 

[Tom]

lolz

I have no idea if that email is legit.

 

[Ch3tan]

Email him yourself Tom, shouldn't be too hard to find his email:

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/ifa/contact.htm

^ doesn't let you click the link, copy and paste into a browser.

 

[Tom]

I bet there's about 5,000 emails asking the same thing, I'll not add to his pain

Mind you, I am struck by the insistence that changes on the surface of a star do not reflect what's going on inside. We've never been able to observe a supernova at relatively close range, so we don't actually know what will happen—we can only make a guess.

 

[Scouse]

What's becoming apparent about our own sun is that it's got a huge and very complex atmosphere. I'm betting Betelgeuse is similar in that respect (although if it's as massive as the orbit as jupiter it's probably even more strange).

I think blokey's saying that if a star is to collapse it probably happens in the core, then sucks it's outer layers into it afterwards, rather than collapsing from the outside in. If that was the case then it kinda makes sense that you could have an OK upper atmosphere but a fucked core*





*Not being an actual physicist means this assessment could be complete shit

 

[Vasconcelos]

Woah! Im so looking forward the show Must be something unique in a lifetime

 

[chipper]

Type II supernova - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

a good read and gives a good explanation of why the star could be shrinking apparently its a sign that the star is in its final stages of life, where all helium has been used and now its using heavier elements.

 

[old.Tohtori]

So was there a timeframe calculated that was smaller then "next thousand years"?

As in, possibility for it to happen in the next 20?

 

[rynnor]

Shame this was based on nonsense - it could still happen in our lifetimes but probably not too soon.

 

[Tom]

It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened. What is now the Crab Nebula was very likely witnessed by humanity around 1,000 years ago, and a supernova that occurred in the 1600s is named after Mr Kepler.

It'd be awesome though, and reading up on Hubble and how it can image Betelgeuse, it would be wonderful to see. Hubble can actually discern the disc of the star, it's that large.