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Could Betelgeuse Go Boom?

Posted by timothy on from the betelgeuse-betelgeuse-betelgeuse-winona dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The answer is No. In space, nobody can hear you scream. However, it might go supernova in the near future, if it hasn't already. I wanna see that, even if it would permanently disfigure Orion. Ka freaking bam!"

16 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. when it will happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's probably gonna blow the next time Lydia yells Betelgeuse 3 times.

  2. Probable cause? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Global warming.

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  3. Wow, Great Summary by Kotoku · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That is one heck of a summary. I really like how a line and a half of text is qualifying as a story these days.

    Is it THAT slow of a news day, or could no one else possibly outdo this clown of a submitter?

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    1. Re:Wow, Great Summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Furthermore, I think that much of the original geek crowd is gone or mostly in lurk mode. So they are doing their best to attract a younger audience.

      I don't think they're gone, and lurk mode depends on your definition of it. If I'm sitting around with a bunch of geeks talking about non-technical stuff, I don't think that makes it lurk mode so much as everyday conversation. When we have technical discussions on here, the level of discussion isn't the same as a professional journal but it's very impressive for a public forum filled with a diverse technical audience. It's still a common occurrence where I see posts on here that give me insight on an issue that I may never have otherwise come across; there are even fairly profound anecdotes.

      I also tend to guess that people remember the olden days as being better than they were. I think the signal to noise in replies has gone up, but moderation takes care of that. The stories, well, frankly I've been here ten years now and I don't remember a time where people weren't groaning at a lot of the stories. I wasn't as regular of a reader back then, but I certainly remember vitriolic replies to every Katz story I saw.

      A lot of times I see people whine about stories on here, it's seems to be myopic assholes who expect slashdot to cater to exactly their tastes to the detriment of everyone else -- and expect top shelf journalism despite it being free and them making little to no contribution of any type at all. I've seen complaints about technical stories, hard science stories, what I would call soft science interest stories, stories about new products, lots of the stories about nerd or geek culture. There's really very few types of stories that seem to be without complaint; if slashdot went the blameless route, it might have three stories a week and it'd miss a shitload of stuff that's quite interesting if you're a person who's actually curious about the world. If you want to complain about the quality of the actual writing, then I suggest you submit more stories with high quality writing -- this is a user-driven site after all.

    2. Re:Wow, Great Summary by Quothz · · Score: 5, Funny

      That is one heck of a summary. I really like how a line and a half of text is qualifying as a story these days.

      That's what you call your executive summary.

  4. Yes by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 5, Informative

    The anonymous reader is wrong. A supernova would be accompanied by a large amount of shockwaves through the star, and a large amount of pressure waves. There would be no sound, in the sense that there would be no neurological interpretations of these phenomena, but they would still happen.

    1. Re:Yes by RsG · · Score: 5, Informative

      Won't matter much.

      First up, let me preface this by saying a supernova happening at six hundred light years is probably no big deal. Probably. However, there is some evidence that gamma ray bursts might be the product of a sufficiently massive star dying and producing a black hole, in which case we could be in trouble if we were struck be such an event at close range.

      But having the bulk of the earth between yourself and such an event would not save you. Remember that we're talking about enough energy here to be detected over intergalactic distances using fairly rudimentary instruments. That much ionizing radiation will cause sufficient damage to the world's surface on the facing side to ensure the deaths of everyone globally.

      However, this presumes that A) GRBs are in fact supernovae emanations, B) Betelgeuse will produce such an event if (when) it dies and C) the energy will be directed at us. There is some support for the idea that long GRBs occur as "jet" effects in two polar opposite directions, which would explain why we don't see them every time a star goes kaput. We need to be in the line of sight. If this were a common occurrence for the earth, it is very likely we would not be here at all.

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  5. New doomsday scenario? by nesfreak64 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's 640 light years away (give or take). Would the neutrinos affect us at all? Is this another doomsday scenario? I would imagine that it'd be hellishly bright in the night sky. What does science say about it? I'm rusty on my astronomy, but it'd be awesome to see.

    1. Re:New doomsday scenario? by RsG · · Score: 5, Informative

      Would the neutrinos affect us at all? Is this another doomsday scenario?

      Please, please tell me this was a joke. Please tell me you actually understood what a neutrino is, and were intentionally posting something absurd.

      In the off-chance you were serious, a neutrino doesn't interact with matter enough to do any damage. This is not a matter of any uncertainty. A single neutrino would have a chance of passing through several light years of solid lead without interacting with a single atom. Neutrinos are sleeting through your body right now from the centre of the sun; they pass through the suns outer layers unimpeded, and if the sun isn't overhead wherever you are right now, then they've also passed through the innards of the earth.

      Neutrinos can't affect us. Or the earth, or much of anything, really.

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    2. Re:New doomsday scenario? by radtea · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That's the first I've ever heard of neutrinos being deadly to anything at all. I'm understandably sceptical.

      The neutrino emissions from a supernova would be lethal to humans out to a light year or so. Really. Cross-section is ~10e-40 cm^2, average energy is 1 MeV-ish. You work it out.

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  6. Where's the kaboom? by Bieeanda · · Score: 5, Funny

    There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!

  7. What a show if it does... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...rippling bands across the ground from atmospheric turbulence, razor-sharp shadows everywhere, with prominent diffraction rings around the ones from faraway objects. And a flaming rainbow streak, blue at the top, shading down through green to red, as it rises or sets in a clear sky.

    If my calculations are right, it won't burn your eyes; it would be roughly equivalent to looking into a 4-microwatt laser, not nearly strong enough to be dangerous. A 10-inch telescope could collimate it into a 5-mW beam, bright enough to see passing through the air, if only it were dark outside. The Palomar reflector would collect closer to 2 watts, enough to start fires and such.

    If it happened this month, most everybody north of the Antarctic Circle would be cruelly cheated. Any time from August through April, though, it should be visible in the night sky from just about anywhere but that same Antarctic. And yes, I'd be willing to drag myself out of bed pre-dawn for this.

  8. Nearby Supergiant stars by syousef · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...are candidates

    You get a lot of talk about how spectacular Eta Carinae would be if it went up. There's already been a Supernova "imposter" event...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eta_Carinae ..and here's some analysis of whether it's a danger.
    http://stupendous.rit.edu/richmond/answers/snrisks.txt ...or has done so already
    http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/246576/files/th-6805-93.ps.gz

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  9. This isn't exactly news. by AbsoluteXyro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We've known for some time now that Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, and we have also known that the red supergiant phase of a star's life only lasts roughly one million years, tops. Being that Betelgeuse is a few million years old, we can deduce that it may be well into it's red supergiant phase, and given that it is 600 light-years away, it is possible that the star has already gone super-nova (type II) and the resulting light from the blast has not yet reached us. Now I understand that the article is saying the star appears to be shrinking, however the star (like any red supergiant) has a history of expanding and contracting. Per the article, it could be any number of things. I really don't think it is anything to get worked up about. Not that sensationalism isn't fun.

  10. Re:Insensitive Clod by CptNerd · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh noes, a lethal grammar ray burst!

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  11. Re:Nova Post! by beowulfcluster · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Since its rotational axis is not toward the Earth, Betelgeuse's supernova would not cause a gamma ray burst in the direction of Earth large enough to damage its ecosystem even from a relatively close proximity of 520 light years."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse