[Mark17]

I read where it’s about 700 light years away, so does that mean if it explodes, will it be 700 years before we see it?

[jmacusa]

Betelgeuse is actually only 430 light years away.

[NELSON111]

Yes-and it means if it exploded it could have done so in 1330 and we won’t know it for another decade. But-if it does happen-it will not be good if it’s pointed this direction.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I read where it’s about 700 light years away, so does that mean if it explodes, will it be 700 years before we see it?

Whatever we're seeing now is what happened on Betelguese 700 years ago.

[DesertRhino]

No, it means what we see happened 700 years ago.

[DesertRhino]

No, it means what we see happened 700 years ago.

[Vince Ferrer]

I read where it’s about 700 light years away, so does that mean if it explodes, will it be 700 years before we see it?

If we see an explosion today, that means it happened 700 years ago. That's why I am kind of irked at the reporting of this. The reporting kind of assumes a Star Trek/Star Wars type universe where things happen instantly and characters know what happened across the galaxy, when the reality is we are limited to the speed of light. They are missing an opportunity to explain the vastness of space.

[Repeal The 17th]

If something is traveling towards you at the speed of light,
you won’t see it coming.

[Revel]

It seems like almost every article I read like this leave out the fact that we are only seeing things that happened so long ago. This is actually the 2nd misleading article on star events that I have seen today.

Earlier I read about a repeating radio type signal that was being picked up from someplace 500,000 light years away. The article failed to mention that they are hearing something that was sourced from 500,000 years ago. A lot can change in that amount of time.

[Louis Foxwell]

No. That means if we see it explode it happened 700 years ago.

[trebb]

Yes

[hal ogen]

Yes. It could have exploded 699 years ago and we will see it next year.