Betelgeuse

[dkatwa]

Does anyone know if there is a telescope (maybe in space) pointing specifically on this star? I heard the brightness has gone down 15% in the last 10 years so maybe it could go pop any moment...would be a shame to miss the event....

[Sheets Tabuer]

It might have already happened.

[Eric Mc]

It will be spectacular if it does.

[Nimby]

Wikipedia says:

"Due to misunderstandings caused by the 2009 publication of the star's 15% contraction, Betelgeuse has frequently been the subject of scare stories and rumors suggesting that it will explode within a year... The latest studies project a supernova in 100000 years".

[Catatafish]

Space based scope time costs big money, and it might not pop for another million years but theres been a lot of high res IR and radio studies recently, so when it does go theres a decent chance that the whole event will be captured by the best available instrument. Certainly the aftermath will be observed intensely. Fingers crossed!

[funkyrobot]

Eric Mc said:

It will be spectacular if it does.

I would love to see this. However, I don't get my hopes up too much.

[vanordinaire]

Try saying Betelgeuse three times in a row and then see what happens?

[Vanguard21]

Are we looking at at type I or II Supernova?

[Moonhawk]

Vanguard21 said:

Are we looking at at type I or II Supernova?

Hard to say - it'll be a core collapse supernova - but until it goes, I don't think they can classify it into Ib/c or II.

Definitely won't be a Ia as these occur via white dwarfs accumulating mass from a companion.

[Supernova190188]

Sheets Tabuer said:

It might have already happened.

Always strange to think this, it might have gone when Henry 8th was King but we still wouldn't see it for years!
Shows just how unimaginably vast even the galaxy actually is!

[Supernova190188]

Sheets Tabuer said:

It might have already happened.

Always strange to think this, it might have gone when Henry 8th was King but we still wouldn't see it for years!
Shows just how unimaginably vast even the galaxy actually is!

[Eric Mc]

I bet you've been waiting for a thread like this since you joined PH

[Halmyre]

I was wondering how close would a supernova would have to be to be a health hazard, and the answer seems to be less than ~50 light years, depending on type. But the unsettling thing is that it might be from something we don't actually know about.

Although probably not for a little while yet, and of course there's a fifty-fifty chance our side of the earth will be facing away from it...

[AshVX220]

Halmyre said:

I was wondering how close would a supernova would have to be to be a health hazard, and the answer seems to be less than ~50 light years, depending on type. But the unsettling thing is that it might be from something we don't actually know about.

Although probably not for a little while yet, and of course there's a fifty-fifty chance our side of the earth will be facing away from it...

Would it matter what side of the Earth was facing it? The problem would be radiation wouldn't it? So wouldn't we be stuffed anyway?

[Catatafish]

AshVX220 said:

Would it matter what side of the Earth was facing it? The problem would be radiation wouldn't it? So wouldn't we be stuffed anyway?

Yes, the earth would screen the hard stuff, but on the side that took the brunt everything would die. Not sure how long the ecosystem would take to recover from that.

[AshVX220]

Catatafish said:

Yes, the earth would screen the hard stuff, but on the side that took the brunt everything would die. Not sure how long the ecosystem would take to recover from that.

Thank you,
I'm not sure we could recover from that, I think that such an event would eventually lead to the rest of the planet dying out too surely? Though maybe it would depend on which side of the Earth took the brunt.

[Eric Mc]

The earth rotates fairly quickly. I would expect that both sides of the planet would be exposed to fairly equal doses of the radiation from the supernova as supernovas can last for weeks.

[Halmyre]

Catatafish said:

AshVX220 said:

Would it matter what side of the Earth was facing it? The problem would be radiation wouldn't it? So wouldn't we be stuffed anyway?

Yes, the earth would screen the hard stuff, but on the side that took the brunt everything would die. Not sure how long the ecosystem would take to recover from that.

Hey, look, if Indiana Jones can survive an atomic blast by hiding in a fridge, I think a lousy planet's worth of mass should see us through.

[scubadude]

Eric Mc said:

The earth rotates fairly quickly. I would expect that both sides of the planet would be exposed to fairly equal doses of the radiation from the supernova as supernovas can last for weeks.

Eric- Stop using FACTS to argue, its not fair ;-)

"Close" to a supernova radiation is only one of many issues we would face, albeit's what might kill us before the other sub-lightspeed problems arrive!

Betelgeuse will be a show stopper when/if we get to see it... I just hope someone somewhere is recording it at the exact time it goes.

[Halmyre]

The earth is 24,900 miles in circumference at the equator, so keeping to a steady 1037 mph in an easterly/westerly (delete as appropriate) direction will keep you shielded from the nasty photons and what-have-you. I do believe a suitable vehicle is being developed:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodhound_SSC

which makes you suspect that some people know more than they're letting on.