Is Betelgeuse in Orion about to explode in a SuperNova? – IOTW Report

Is Betelgeuse in Orion about to explode in a SuperNova?

WUWT- Somethings going on in the sky. In Orion, the red supergiant star known as Betelgeuse is looking faint, dropping rapidly in brightness since October and is now at ~1.3 to 1.5 magnitude. Normally it burns brightly, as seen in the upper left in the photo below, but it has now dipped so low in magnitude it is not even in the top 20 brightest stars in the night sky. MORE

23 Comments on Is Betelgeuse in Orion about to explode in a SuperNova?

  1. I always wanted to be an astronomer growing up but then I realized you have to be VERY VERY VERY VERY left brained so I opted to go to where my right brain led me. So far for me and where I’ve come from…not too shabby. 😉

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  2. …they told us electing “Obama” made the seas recede.

    …does that mean they will tell us electing Hillary will make the stars unexplode?

    …although I would hope for SOL to go supernova under such circumstances, as THAT would mean evil has WON…

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  3. Betelgeuse will go supernova.
    Estimates range between any day now to 1.5 million years.
    Betelgeuse is too far away to cause any harm to our system, but it will be spectacular to see in the night sky.
    Our Sun will not go supernova; it lacks sufficient mass to do so. Instead, it will kill us in a slower, more agonizing way.

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  4. Wouldn’t this be old news? One website states the distance to Betelgeuse is 642.5 light years, another websites list the distance as approximately 430 light years. Either way it probably already happened.

    I believe the proper pronunciation is Betel-guy-ice.

    “The proper names of many bright stars are Arabic in origin. This fact reflects the dominance of Arabic astronomers and astrologers during Europe’s Dark Ages (? thanks to the Pope?). The name Betelgeuse apparently is derived from an Arabic phrase that is usually translated as The Armpit of the Giant.”

    https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/betelgeuse-will-explode-someday#how .

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  5. Betelgeuse Is Dimmer Than We’ve Ever Seen It
    1,824 views •Dec 27, 2019

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWGMXCzBzhM .

    Ah, no worries, it may be a few hundred or a few thousand years before it goes supernova, and a few hundred years more before we see it. If it hasn’t already happened and we are just waiting for the light to arrive here. The light we see now only reveals the early transformation on the journey.

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  6. @ Lazlo The Elder

    Unless a gamma ray burst from a nearby supernova blows away the entire atmosphere I not going to worry to much about the ozone layer. On the other hand having a gamma ray burst converting the majority of the oxygen to ozone on the side of the planet that faces it could be a problem.

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