Is Betelgeuse About To Explode?

Forbes ^ | 12/25/2019 | Ethan Siegel

[Wildbill22]

Could it emit, at the speed of light with the visual event, that gamma ray life extinguishing blast that would end all life on earth?

-Well GET IN LINE.

Nuclear war, Carrington event, Yellowstone Caldera, EMP attack, GloBULL Warming, terrorists, zombie apocalypse,,,,,

[plsvn]

Magnitude of Betelgeuse, starting in 1970

This is cherry-picked data to emphasize the current drop in brightness. Take the graph back further in time, and you'll see periods when Betelgeuse was even fainter.

[SaveFerris]

[ So if it explodes today, it will have exploded 640 years ago. ]

Well, then, we can definitely say, with liberal certainly, this is completely the fault of President Trump.

With some sort of Russian collusion.

[kaboom]

[SaveFerris]

"You let a star explode....you Global Climate Mismanagers!!!???!!!"

[Mr. K]

A preposition is not something you end a sentence WITH.

[SaveFerris]

kaboom, that is..............(well, of course it is)



(sorry, had to work "J.J." Walker into this explosive thread - needs a BOOM!)

[Hebrews 11:6]

Isn’t a supernova around the time of Christ’s birth believed to be the sign that drew the wise men and others to Bethlehem?

Christian astrophysicist Dr. Hugh Ross argues persuasively for either a recurring nova (but not a supernova) or a cataclysmic variable star. See 28:19, Episode 88, beginning at 17:16. For more, visit Reasons.org/christmasstar.

[SaveFerris]

[hanamizu]

That’s right, and one of the amazing aspects of astronomy.
Is there any way to know if it’s even still there in real time?

---

Not if Einstein is to be believed. When you look at the night sky you are looking back in time. Minutes in the case of planets, years, centuries or more in the case of stars. The Andromeda galaxy, just naked-eye visible on a dark night is some like 2 1/2 million light years away, which is how far back in time you are seeing.

[jmacusa]

Yeah. It's the sort of dull orange/reddish one. Some theorize it's already exploded some time ago.

[jmacusa]

LOL. Nah. It’s named after the guy who discovered it.

[al baby]

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

“So if it explodes today, it will have exploded 640 years ago.”

You are right, it exploded 640 years ago give or take a few years. But it also took 640 years for the inter-steller light display to get delivered.

[mewzilla]

Ask Frankie and Benjy!

[Flaming Conservative]

Betelgeuse will explode? Blame climate change.
We’re having an unusually warm winter? Blame climate change.
You’re having an unusually cold winter? Blame climate change.
President Trump is re-elected? Blame climate change.
You’re constipated? Blame...well, you get the picture.

[Nateman]

... gamma ray life extinguishing blast that would end all life on earth?

There were explosions that were so energetic that it seemed to violate E=MC2. Turns out they were assuming the blast went out in all directions when in fact it went in a beam that the Earth just happened to intersect.

The beams went out from where the object was spinning. I mention this because Earth is actually facing one of the poles of Betelgeuse.

[fidelis]

[fieldmarshaldj]

[jonatron]

Thanks, that was a good video.