ESO/L.Calcada
Posted on 02/04/2011 8:43:37 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
ESO/L.Calcada
The supergiant star Betelgeuse has a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System and a gigantic bubble boiling on its surface, shown in this artist's impression.
The super-giant red star Betelgeuse in Orion’s nebula is predicted to cataclysmically explode, and the impending supernova may even reach Earth -- someday.
But will it happen by 2012, as recent news reports suggest? Probably not, experts told FoxNews.com. While the second biggest star in the universe is strangely losing mass -- and has already become a red giant, meaning it is destined to explode and become a supernova -- there's no reason to believe that it will happen anytime soon.
"The story is pretty 'Hollywoody,'" said New Jersey Institute of Technology professor Philip R. Goode. In reality, the stars eventual explosion is inevitable, but no one knows when it will happen, he explained -- 2012 is pure conjecture.
"Betelgeuse is a red supergiant and should supernova at some time. When? Who knows?" he told FoxNews.com.
Phil Plait, an astronomer who writes for Discovery News, agrees that someday, Betelgeuse will go gangbusters. But it’s way too far away to hurt us, he explained.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Stopped reading right there.
They toured Da Nang, Cam Ranh and Nha Trang. They probably could have had more success if the truck driver had understood the American MP yelling, “Don’t turn down that road! It’s a mine field!”
No one knows that it likely already is a supernova. It may not explode for thousands of years.
Yeah yeah yeah. They did go out with a bang...
With their big hit, "Da Nang Me....Da Nang Me....why don't they get a rope and hang me?"
You’ve read my mind...
Oy. The writer knows this how? Unless for him/her/it, the biggest star in the universe is Obama...
Shalom
“While the second biggest star in the universe”
Now just how the heck would they know that? Rolls eyes.
I like to point to alpha-Scorpius and tell people that the light they’re seeing left there about the time Columbus left for America.
For us to see it in 2012 Betelgeuse would have had to gone off in about 1372 AD.
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