To put this media hype in perspective, the closest star to earth is about 4 light years away = 23,462,784,000,000 miles. Light travels at 186,000 miles every second.
Given that Betelgeuse is thought to be about 640 light years from Earth (estimates have also ranged from 180 to 1,300), the morons in the press actually claiming we will be in for a light show when the event occurs are as clueless as we know they are.
Even though its a supergiant class star (over 1000x bigger radius than our sun, but less dense as it has multiple layers of atmosphere like environments “photospheres”), it would take centuries for the actual light from this event to be viewable from this planet. Yes, once it got here, it would outshine the moon and even be visable during daytime, but the most intense light would only last a couple weeks, and slowly dim away over a couple months.
And since its rotational axis is not pointed in Earth’s direction, when a supernova occurs, its unlikely any type of gamma ray burst would arrive and impact our eco-system (but I’m sure Hollywood is working on a script that says otherwise). The ultra-violet output from the explosion would be less than our suns.
From what I can find on the subject the pole is some 20 degrees off from pointing towards Earth. Given the margin of error and the width of the resulting jets Earth could very well be in the line of fire.
What do you want to bet that someone is gearing up to make some money out of protecting us from speeding neutrinos and seven cults are predicting the imminent arrival of refugees bringing eternal life and/or eternal damnation?