Betelgeuse: the next portent

It’s about to go supernova any time in the next few hundred thousand years, which in astronomical terms could be by lunchtime. Hold on to your asses...

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/is-the-betelgeuse-star-about-to-explode/

@divegeester said
It’s about to go supernova any time in the next few hundred thousand years, which in astronomical terms could be by lunchtime. Hold on to your asses...

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/is-the-betelgeuse-star-about-to-explode/

Interesting article. Fortunately its 200 light years away so my ass is unlikely to be around in 2220.

@the-gravedigger said
Interesting article. Fortunately its 200 light years away so my ass is unlikely to be around in 2220.

Unfortunately I will be around.
Becoming a vampire was the worst mistake ever!

@who-keres said
Unfortunately I will be around.
Becoming a vampire was the worst mistake ever!

I certainly find it a pain in the neck.

@the-gravedigger said
Interesting article. Fortunately its 200 light years away so my ass is unlikely to be around in 2220.

If we see it blow tomorrow it will have happened 200 years ago.

If it blew 200 years ago then tomorrow it will be the most spectacular sight in the heavens.
Despite being about a 1000 trillion miles away, it will be visible in broad daylight and a pin prick as bright as the full moon at night.

I read it is not actually dimming but a huge wall of space dust is infront of the star.

@who-keres said
I read it is not actually dimming but a huge wall of space dust is infront of the star.

Interesting, do you have a link to that?

sciencenews.org

My phone is so low tech i can't even post links.
Think 1997 when you imagine my phone.

https://www.space.com/amp/betelgeuse-star-dimming-just-dust.html

Grabbed my wifes phone while she went to get me a beer.
She is yelling at me right now.
She hates when I take her awesome Iphone.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/betelgeuse-star-dust-supernova-explosion/amp

@who-keres said
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/betelgeuse-star-dust-supernova-explosion/amp

Fascinating and disappointing, I was hoping to see a supernova with my own eyes before the virus got me.

Betelgeuse is a beast!
“Classified as a red supergiant of spectral type M1-2, Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye; imagined as being at the center of the Solar System, its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt and it would engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and possibly Jupiter.”
Wiki.

Me too.
I love outer-space.
That star won't explode anytime soon.
I am hoping the asteroid apophis hits the so-called royal family in 2036.

Now that might actually happen.
It will come close in 2029 and maybe earths gravity will pull it just enough that it hits in 2036.

NASA says it won't but obviously they wouldn't tell us it will hit.

@divegeester said
If we see it blow tomorrow it will have happened 200 years ago.

If it blew 200 years ago then tomorrow it will be the most spectacular sight in the heavens.
Despite being about a 1000 trillion miles away, it will be visible in broad daylight and a pin prick as bright as the full moon at night.

Er yes, Im getting confused here Dive.
Aren't they watching it through big Kick ass telescopes ?

@the-gravedigger said
Er yes, Im getting confused here Dive.
Aren't they watching it through big Kick ass telescopes ?

Doesn't matter how good the telescope - the light still takes 200 years to get here.

@the-gravedigger said
Er yes, Im getting confused here Dive.
Aren't they watching it through big Kick ass telescopes ?

Telescopes simply gather more (than the naked eye) of the light which has already travelled through space for the 200 light years it took to reach us from the star.

When we see the Sun we do not see it as it actually is but as it was 8 minutes ago, because it has taken the light (travelling at 186,000 miles/sec) 8 minutes to travel the 93,000,000 miles to our eyes. Same principle with Betelgeuse, except we are talking about the light taking 200 years to reach us which puts the distance into some context.