Betelgeuse watch

@Suzianne said
It is, and it is true.

Elements are burned in stars for fuel. Fusion reactions, which result in heavier elements. But it can only get up to iron (Fe) due to how the atoms are structured. That's the final straw, and ALL heavier elements (including the radioactive ones that aren't just isotopes of normal elements) have to be fused in a nova or supernova. The gravity of ...[text shortened]... star becomes overpowered by the repulsion of the atom nuclei and.... BANG! (Or superBANG! I guess)

@sonhouse said
It could have already gone nova or supernova. 600 ish light years from Earth it could have already gone nova a hundred years ago and we still won't find out for 500 years.

@diver said
I find it amazing that several of the heavier elements are only created in a supernova; gold for example.

@Suzianne said
Especially considering that on the timeline of the greater cosmos, a human lifetime is a fleeting spark. For one to witness an event of this magnitude, especially considering the tiny window of time we each have, and the immensity of the universe added to the rarity of the event, we can give thanks that such a thing could be revealed while we are able to witness it. It certainly would be amazing.

@Arkturos said
Or we might think, "Hmm, such an interesting coincidence."

Also, it's really only humans who are interested in humans. Nobody else is.

The Betelgeusians are a verminous lot of squabbling craptards, especially on the 3rd and 4th planets. Let their sun explode and blow them all to smithereens. Good riddance!

@Arkturos said
The Betelgeusians are a verminous lot of squabbling craptards, especially on the 3rd and 4th planets. Let their sun explode and blow them all to smithereens. Good riddance!

@Arkturos said
Or we might think, "Hmm, such an interesting coincidence."

Also, it's really only humans who are interested in humans. Nobody else is.

@diver said
I was watching a Brian Cox video last night where he was answering a question about finding life elsewhere in the universe. He pointed out that nearest galaxy is about 2 million light years away, edge to edge; so even a comms wave travelling at the speed of light is at least a 4 million year reply cycle. Even communications within our own galaxy could be hundreds of thousands o ...[text shortened]... f time covering billions of years of galactic evolution.

Yeah, we’re on our own in this I think.

@Suzianne As we have moved off into the likelihood of ohter intelligent life in teh Galaxy it's worth having a look at the Drake Equation

N = R* × fₚ × nₑ × fₗ × fᵢ × fc × L

This was dreamed up by a number of visionaries in the 1960s to give an estimate of the number of civilizations there might be in the Galaxy that are advanced enough to be detectable. We are detectable and having been leaking radio noise into space for a century or so.

If you then think mission like Kepler suggest that most of the Stars, something between 100 and 400 Billon, have planets and that many of them have multiple planets then to possibility is for a vast number of "earth like" planets in the galaxy. Are we on our own.... No chance or at least there's higher chance of me as a beginner at this game of winning one than there is of that lol

@Suzianne said
Yes, I've often thought the vast distances necessarily between intelligence-evolving planets must be by design.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke said
Just look at the folly of Babel, where humans were apparently divinely confused by language and scattered across the Earth.

We overcame that.

@rookie54 said
@diver
sorry i've gotten off track
betelgeuse betelgeuse betelgeuse

@rookie54 said
lol
i thoroughly disagree
with an exclamation point!

whatever truth there may be behind that myth/parable it continues to this day
i will not bore you with examples of pain and death exacted by humans upon other humans
internet reporting is rife with photos of the blood of both the innocent and the deserving
"wars and rumors of wars"

lol

yeah we overcame that
...[text shortened]... ve that you believe yerself

@diver
sorry i've gotten off track
betelgeuse betelgeuse betelgeuse

@Ghost-of-a-Duke said
Suzianne would have factored in my atheism and penchant for the fanciful.