Is Betelgeuse About To Explode?

Forbes ^ | 12/25/2019 | Ethan Siegel

[jonatron]

When you take a look at the stars in the night sky, they generally appear the same regardless of time. Only a small number of stars ever appear to change on human timescales, as most stars burn through their fuel very stably, with almost no variation in their continuous brightness. The few stars that do appear to change are either intrinsically variable, members of multi-star systems, or go through an enormous evolutionary change.

When very massive stars get close to the end of their lives, they start varying by tremendous amounts, and do so with significant irregularity. At a critical moment, most of these stars will run out of the nuclear fuel holding up their cores against collapse, and the resulting implosion leads to a runaway cataclysm: a core-collapse supernova. Could Betelgeuse, whose variability intensified in a novel way over the last few days, be about to explode? Here's what astronomers know so far.

The last time our species witnessed a supernova from within our own galaxy with the naked human eye, the year was 1604. A new point of light in the sky suddenly appeared, brightened, and briefly outshone every single star before slowly fading away. This wasn't the first such event, as prior supernovae had illuminated Earth's skies like this in 1572, 1054, and 1006, among others.

But all of those supernovae occurred from stars that were thousands of light-years away, with Kepler's 1604 explosion being traced back to a stellar remnant located some 20,000 light-years across the Milky Way. Of all the stars we see in the night sky, one bright member stands out as the most fascinating possibility as our galaxy's next supernova: Betelgeuse, one of our sky's 10 brightest stars, located a mere 640 light-years away.

[VanDeKoik]

Bored writer in need of some filler to phone-in.

I’ve been reading this same story for the past 34 years. Same sensationalist headline too.

[struggle]

They roll this essay out yearly with the same conclusions

[PIF]

A more accurate statement of this question:

Is The Light From an Exploding Betelgeuse About To Reach Us?

And a more worrisome question is”
Is the Massive Gamma Ray Burst From an Exploding Betelgeuse About To Reach Us?

If so, we are shortly going extinct.

[steve86]

The author is a homosexual and atheist and you wont hear any Nativity talk from him.

[samtheman]

And a more worrisome question is”
Is the Massive Gamma Ray Burst From an Exploding Betelgeuse About To Reach Us?

If so, we are shortly going extinct.
—
I think one of the poles has to be pointed right at us for this to be a problem for us.

[Swordmaker]

Hope so. It would be very cool.

A Supernova only 640 Light years away from us could mean we’d be in for a very bad day. . . X-ray radiation would be high. . . Not good. Depends on how bad that nova is. Brightness that close, followed by a wave of slower particles will not be good for anything that close.

Good thing I am a proponent of the Electric/Plasma Universe which does not follow the claim that Super Novas actually occur. They are electrical in nature and merely flares caused by changes in electrical potential. Still could be bad for X-ray radiation.

Clear Example of a Birkeland Current
"Z" Pinch with Symmetrical Plasmids
seen in Hubble Telescope View of
The Twin Jet Nebula
ELECTRIC/PLASMA UNIVERSE PING!

If you want on or off the Electric Universe/Plasma Ping List, Freepmail me.

[kaehurowing]

OMG we’re all gonna die.

[Redcitizen]

“ we’re all gonna die...”.

Again.

[Rebelbase]

Would be hilarious if it burst into vision on the night Trump is re-elected.

Even more funny if someone could hack the sound system at a Democrat election night watch and have it play an Angel’s chorus at the same time.

[MHGinTN]

LOL those demon rats are so predictably stupid.

[SgtHooper]

PF 5000 lotion should handle it.

[Wildbill22]

And a more worrisome question is”
Is the Massive Gamma Ray Burst From an Exploding Betelgeuse About To Reach Us?

If so, we are shortly going extinct.
—
I think one of the poles has to be pointed right at us for this to be a problem for us.

---

I think someone above just mentioned, IT IS....

I guess I picked the wrong week to quit smoking...

[Hugh the Scot]

Or perhaps the wrong week to stop huffing paint.

There’s no there there.

[gasport]

PDJT has abolished Obama’s Galactic Zoning Board.

[Ozark Tom]

Super-flare activity could happen at any time. With our current limited ability for prediction of solar events, we wouldn’t have much lead time to take protective action. No worry about explosion potential from old Sol though.

[ETCM]

So, assuming Betelgeuse leaves a remnant nebula similar to M1 in Taurus, it will be similar in angular size to the full moon, about 0.5 degrees, dwarfing the current “star” of Orion, M42. I’m sure it would be fascinating to watch.

[Maceman]

A more accurate statement of this question: Is The Light From an Exploding Betelgeuse About To Reach Us?

An even MORE accurate statement of the question:

"Is the light from an EXPLODED Betelgeuse about to reach us?"

[Old Yeller]

How close is it to Uranus?

[minnesota_bound]

#29 What really happened.

The Star - Arthur C Clarke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(Clarke_short_story)
Determining the exact year of the long-ago supernova and the star system’s distance from Earth, he calculated the date the emitted light from the explosion reached Earth, proving that the cataclysm that destroyed the peaceful planet was the same star that heralded the birth of Jesus.

[Ozark Tom]

If you can determine that a potential supernova’s spin-axis is aligned with your location, then you might have a problem! There are a few that come too close for comfort. WR 104 and Eta Carinae were once GRB contenders as a threat to Earth.