Is Betelgeuse about to go Supernova?

Betelgeuse has been very volatile lately, and astronomers are watching to determine if it's terminal or just going through a phase.

Although it would probably look spectacular, I'd hate to see Betelgeuse go if for no other reason than I love the name.

Seriously, it's one of the most recognizable stars in our sky...

Huge Red Star might explode soon and next few weeks are critical

a reply to: Riffrafter

The only problem ?
If Betelgeuse goes supernovae , it has the Earth laser sighted...
"Turn out the lights , the party's over"
ETA : 600+ years later

a reply to: Gothmog


It would take 640 years for the impact to reach Earth though, right?

originally posted by: jjkenobi
a reply to: Gothmog


It would take 640 years for the impact to reach Earth though, right?

Not an expert but I think it would take longer than that.
The shock wave or whatever it’s called wouldn’t travel at the speed of light.
Maybe someone more knowledgeable can comment.

originally posted by: Gothmog
a reply to: Riffrafter

The only problem ?
If Betelgeuse goes supernovae , it has the Earth laser sighted...
"Turn out the lights , the party's over"
ETA : 600+ years later

If it's that far away it would have already gone 640 years ago, we would just now be seeing it

Not the other way around

We see light from stars as they were in the past.... Not as they are now

originally posted by: jjkenobi
a reply to: Gothmog


It would take 640 years for the impact to reach Earth though, right?

Depending on the range of the scope used .
And , it is not an "impact"
Theoretically , it would burn away the Van Allen Belt and strip the Earth's atmosphere.
But , on a lighter note , Beetlejuice is not the correct type of star.
Red Dwarf , doesn't contain enough heavy metals , and is shrinking.
As much as we know.

originally posted by: RazorV66

originally posted by: jjkenobi
a reply to: Gothmog


It would take 640 years for the impact to reach Earth though, right?

Not an expert but I think it would take longer than that.
The shock wave or whatever it’s called wouldn’t travel at the speed of light.
Maybe someone more knowledgeable can comment.

Uhhh , it is not a "shock wave"
It is most likely a gamma ray burst. A HUGE one . That usually travels at the speed of light.

originally posted by: SailorJerry

originally posted by: Gothmog
a reply to: Riffrafter

The only problem ?
If Betelgeuse goes supernovae , it has the Earth laser sighted...
"Turn out the lights , the party's over"
ETA : 600+ years later

If it's that far away it would have already gone 640 years ago, we would just now be seeing it

Not the other way around

We see light from stars as they were in the past.... Not as they are now

Uhh, no.
Like I stated on the other post , depends on the range of the scope

Betelgeuse could have already exploded up to 640 years ago and we wouldn't know it until we see it.

IF (big if, see below) its explosion caused bursts of gamma rays or bursts of x-rays, those dangerous rays would already be heading to Earth at the speed of light and get to Earth at the same time as the light -- since those things are part of the light. Gamma rays and x-rays, just like visible light, are EM radiation; they are part of the overall "light."

HOWEVER, according to this article by Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomy guy) linked below, Betelgeuse is not the type of star whose explosion would be harmful to us at the distance it is from us. We would NOT have our atmosphere torn away or have harmful radiation searing us from Betelgeuse.

Discover Magazine - Is Betelgeuse About to Blow?

Edit to add excerpt from article:

Betelgeuse will explode. That's for certain! But it's also way too far away to hurt us. A supernova has to be no farther than about 25 light years away to be able to fry us with light or anything else, and Betelgeuse is 25 times that distance (which means its power to hurt us is weakened by over 600x). It's the wrong kind of star to explode as a gamma-ray burst, so I'm not worried about that either. At that distance, it'll get bright, about as bright as the full Moon. That's pretty bright! It'll hurt your eyes to look at it, but that's about it. The original post says it may get as bright as the Sun, but that's totally wrong. It won't even get 1/100,000th that bright. Still bright, but it's not going to cook us.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: RazorV66

originally posted by: jjkenobi
a reply to: Gothmog


It would take 640 years for the impact to reach Earth though, right?

Not an expert but I think it would take longer than that.
The shock wave or whatever it’s called wouldn’t travel at the speed of light.
Maybe someone more knowledgeable can comment.

Uhhh , it is not a "shock wave"
It is most likely a gamma ray burst. A HUGE one . That usually travels at the speed of light.

Ok not a shock wave.
Betelgeuse is 640 light years away and if we see it go supernova tomorrow, it actually happened 640 years ago.
So what you are saying is the gamma ray burst with reach us at the exact same time we see the star explode?

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
Betelgeuse could have already exploded up to 640 years ago and we wouldn't know it until we see it.

IF (big if, see below) its explosion caused bursts of gamma rays or bursts of x-rays, those dangerous rays would already be heading to Earth at the speed of light and get to Earth at the same time as the light -- since those things are part of the light Gamma rays and x-rays are, just like light, EM radiation.

HOWEVER, according to this article by Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomy guy) linked below, Betelgeuse is not the type of star whose explosion would be harmful to us at the distance it is from us. We would NOT have our atmosphere torn away or have harmful radiation searing us from Betelgeuse.

Discover Magazine - Is Betelgeuse About to Blow?

Which is correct if a scope uses light .
These dont.
Now , as stated , Beetlejuice , they believe , is not the right "kind" of star to explode .
That kind just keeps shrinking....and fades away.

It would be like second sun. When it goes supernova, it will be visble in sky in daytime and brighter than moon in night time.

Betelgeuse is the exact wrong type of star to cause a "gamma-ray burst" and its axis is not even pointed at the earth so I wouldn't worry about a stellar apocalypse from that direction.

The name "Betelgeuse" would exist as part of our common language for centuries. First as "The Betelgeuse event" (which would be as bright as the moon for weeks or months), and then as the Betelgeuse nebula. Unlike the star itself the name, Betelgeuse isn't going anywhere any time "soon"*.

*where soon can be defined as a range between now(ish) and hundreds of thousands of years.

a reply to: 0zzymand0s

and its axis is not even pointed at the earth

It aligns every now and then.
Perfectly.

originally posted by: jjkenobi
a reply to: Gothmog


It would take 640 years for the impact to reach Earth though, right?

Which begs the question, has it already happened?

a reply to: Plotus

If we see it tomorrow, then ... yes.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
Betelgeuse could have already exploded up to 640 years ago and we wouldn't know it until we see it.

IF (big if, see below) its explosion caused bursts of gamma rays or bursts of x-rays, those dangerous rays would already be heading to Earth at the speed of light and get to Earth at the same time as the light -- since those things are part of the light Gamma rays and x-rays are, just like light, EM radiation.

HOWEVER, according to this article by Phil Plait (the Bad Astronomy guy) linked below, Betelgeuse is not the type of star whose explosion would be harmful to us at the distance it is from us. We would NOT have our atmosphere torn away or have harmful radiation searing us from Betelgeuse.

Discover Magazine - Is Betelgeuse About to Blow?

Which is correct if a scope uses light .
These dont.
Now , as stated , Beetlejuice , they believe , is not the right "kind" of star to explode .
That kind just keeps shrinking....and fades away.

How is that relevant to the time frame?

Gamma bursts, X rays, etc. travel the same speed as photons, do they not?

a reply to: Riffrafter

I've been looking up at the skies since this anomaly became known. As someone who is a stargazer, it is easy to tell that Betelguise has gotten significantly dimmer. Now it's not only at an unprecedented dimmness, it is also lasting much longer than any previous observed cycles.(It is a variable star so it dims and brightens in what usually is a predictable cycle both time and magnitude).

It would be awesome to see it go supernova in our lifetime. I can't imagine the Constellation Orion without it.

If it's about to blow, the timing is something to note, given the unrest the world is facing, some might say we are on the verge of another World War when they would be one hell of an omen.

Is this thing in the same neck of the woods as those FRBs?

I think our solar system is at a safe enough distance that even if it does go Nova it should not cause any significant harm though there was something I read that suggested the magnetic waves from the dying star could actually somehow affect our own stars core causing it to reduce activity and actually cool for a period, I think this is probably bunk but the theory was interesting enough and the guy that wrote the article seemed intelligence enough that it deserves mention.

Also the star while about 20 times the mass of our own sun is unlikely to become a black hole as it is probably too small for that but it could leave a white dwarf behind when it goes, the first indication even before the light reaches us though probably only a fraction of a second before the light would be a sudden wave of high energy neutrino's that would be detected in some of our neutrino detecting underground observatory's.

Other than that many people would regard it as a sign some seeing it as a good sign and other's as a bad one, people are superstitious and religious like that but I would find it saddening that a great star had lived out it's life cycle, our own sun is expected to live for about another 4 to 5 billion years then to swell into a red giant before it too end's it life cycle but if our descendant's by that time have left our solar system they may well be living around stars such as Proxima Centauri a tiny red dwarf star that will live for maybe a hundred time's as long as our own sun, despite being smaller these smaller stars have much slower rates of fusion and so despite having less material one of the perversity's of the star life cycle is that they last so much longer, generally the larger the star the shorter it's life span.

Some interesting size comparison's.



Hopefully that great star will be around for a long time and future generations can enjoy it's constant presence but many of the great stars listed in the first video may be already long, long gone and it is only there ghost light we are seeing so long after there passing.

Now if it had the potential to become a Neutron star and it's emission to pass our way THEN I would be worried but that is also unlikely to occur.