[Star Traveler]

An anonymous poster there says he has heard that the star Betelgeuse is about to go supernova, maybe as soon as a few weeks:

Betelgeuse is about 640 light years away (give or take 140 light years) -- so, if it blows up next week, you won't know it for another 640 years ... LOL ...

[wastedyears]

Well in reality, it would have exploded millions of years ago, and we’re just getting a glimpse now of what happened long ago.

Funny, that light.

[LonePalm]

Perhaps they are seeing an increasing iron line in the spectrometry. That is a dead give away that a star won't be around long.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[dr_who]

More importantly...has Obama been briefed about it, and does he have his teleprompter ready?

[stayathomemom]

I had an astronomy professor, Robert Kirshner, when I was at U of M whose specialty was supernovae. I remember him saying joyfully that we were "due" for one based on the odds of how frequently they appear. He was a great lecturer, by the way.

[Natural Born 54]

So the really lucky folks (for whom Betelgeuse is only visible at night) will get 24 hour days

Anybody know what part of the earth will get 24 hours of daylight?

[ETL]

Soon, many of us will start receiving that Mars e-mail again which claims that, in August, Mars will be making a close approach to Earth and appear as large as the full moon. Truth is, Mars and Earth do not have a close approach every August, but rather every approximate 26-27 months, for that is how long it takes Earth to catch up to Mars along our inner track (think of the solar system as a circular race track with Earth being in ‘lane 3’ and Mars ‘lane 4’ — one Mars year is about 20 months). In any case, no matter close the ‘close approach’, Mars will only look like a very bright orange or gold star. The last such close approach occurred this past January 2010. And so the next won’t be until March or April, 2012.

[Tench_Coxe]

Technically, it went supernova 520 years ago.

[sheik yerbouty]

If it is so, it has already happened..

[gleeaikin]

Well, if we loose big B, it will really mess up the constellation Orion.

[hattend]

It exploded last week. We just won’t know it for 600 years

[Eepsy]

I swear, my 3rd grade lit textbook had a cheerily illustrated version of “The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes” in it. I was convinced the sun could go supernova any second til my fifth grade science teacher taught me otherwise.

[Las Vegas Dave]

BTTT for later read..