When Will Betelgeuse Explode? (Constellation Orion)

Slate ^ | September 8, 2014 | Phil Plait

[C19fan]

If there’s one star in the sky people know about, it’s Betelgeuse.* Marking the right shoulder of the hunter Orion—remember, he’s facing us, so it’s on our left—this orange-red star is one of the brightest in the night sky. It’s been studied for as long as we’ve had telescopes, yet for all our advanced technology and knowhow, details about it are maddeningly vague. We don’t even have a good determination of how far away it is!

Still, there’s a lot we do know: It’s a red supergiant, a star that started out life already a lot bigger, more massive, and far more luminous than the Sun. Stars like that go through their nuclear fuel extremely rapidly; while the Sun is only approaching middle age at 4.5 billion years old, Betelgeuse is dying now at an age of less than 10 million years old. And when it does finally give up the ghost, it’ll do so with a bang. A very, very big bang: It’ll go supernova, one of nature’s most dramatic and ridiculously violent events.

[C19fan]

Some recent paper predicts Betelgeuse will supernova in 100,000 years.

[JRandomFreeper]

590 years ago.

/johnny

[ShadowAce]

[dfwgator]

Beetlejuice BeetleJuice Beetlejuice.

[Mad Dawgg]

"When Will Betelgeuse Explode?"

I would say: "Shortly after he gets inside..."

[Revelation 911]

how far from Uranus is this star?

sorry - couldn’t resist

[Farmer Dean]

How many light years away is Betelgeuse?It could have gone supernova ages ago,the light just hasn’t made it yet.

[C19fan]

Around 650 light years.

[tanknetter]

This is from Slate; I’m assuming the “women and minorities hardest hit” part isn’t in the excerpt?

[Buckeye McFrog]

From the look of things Michael Moore is gonna explode first.

[MrB]

I would say “when you step on him hard enough”.

[Starstruck]

590 years ago.

Good one.

[Mark17]

From the look of things Michael Moore is gonna explode first.

He is such a POS, I will not shed a tear when that happens.

[GOP_Party_Animal]

I was expecting the cause of the star’s explosion to be man-made global warming.

[jmacusa]

Some theorize Betelgeuse has already gone supernova. Along with Betelgeuse one of the most massive stars in the universe is Deneb in the constellation Cygnus also known as “The Northern Cross’’ seen on Summer evenings.

[jmacusa]

Betelgeuse is 430 light years from Earth. Perhaps one of the farthest objects in the universe in terms of distance in light years from us here on Earth is our sister galaxy the Andromeda Galaxy at 2 million,300,000 light years. Considering a single light year is roughly six trillion miles that's a long , long way from here.

[Zeppo]

I never get tired of jokes at Michael Moore’s expense.

I’d like to send the guy a wafer-thin mint or two, if that’s what it takes to speed the coming of that day...

[BenLurkin]

Betelgeuse is in the upper right corner.

[JRios1968]

[KarlInOhio]

Perhaps one of the farthest objects in the universe in terms of distance in light years from us here on Earth is our sister galaxy the Andromeda Galaxy at 2 million,300,000 light years.

Just about every galaxy is farther away than that. The interesting bit about the Andromeda Galaxy is that it is supposed to be the farthest object easily visible with the naked eye. You've got to get out the binoculars or telescope to see farther.