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Rumor of Betelgeuse's Death Greatly Exaggerated

Posted by kdawson on from the holding-out-for-twenty-twelve dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "A rumor is spreading on the Net like wildfire that the red supergiant star Betelgeuse is about to explode in a supernova. This rumor is almost certainly not true. First, it's posted on a doomsday forum. Second, it's three times removed from the source, and is anonymous at each step. Third, the evidence is shaky at best. Plus, even if true, the supernova is too far away to hurt us. But other than that ..."

17 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Seriously? by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, but of all the places to go for bad rumors and conspiracy theories, slashdot is my favorite!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  2. Doomsday forum by interkin3tic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hmm... That's almost more interesting to me. Seems pretty odd to have a doomsday forum. If you think the world is ending soon, you're going to be online, chatting about it? Are the doomsday predictions spinning off to places other than Earth because doomsayers realized they're tired of being wrong and if they're right about predicting the earth's demise, they won't get any credit for it?

    1. Re:Doomsday forum by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hmm... That's almost more interesting to me. Seems pretty odd to have a doomsday forum. If you think the world is ending soon, you're going to be online, chatting about it?

      I take it no one has introduced you to Bash.org?

  3. Reason four: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nobody yet knows where the Hrung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven.

  4. Re:Seriously? by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeah, and Slashdot is also a site that covers this kind of thing.

    Plus it beats yet another "Something has tenuous link with iPad"/"Someone wrote hype piece about iPad"/"iPadipadipadipadipad!" story.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  5. Check for puppeteers by MichaelSmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't see any Pierson's Puppeteers around. I think we should get out of here.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  6. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    640 is the distance limit anyway. After all, why would light need to travel further than 640 LY?

  7. Re:Who cares? by owlstead · · Score: 5, Funny

    Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?

  8. Re:Who cares? by ducomputergeek · · Score: 3, Funny

    meh. Potato, potawto, it's all relative.

    --
    "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
  9. Re:Who cares? by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 4, Funny

    With the crazies I have around me, who'd notice?

  10. Re:Who cares? by nitehawk214 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't think any neutrino detector can detect them. Not even IceCube.

    What about Dr Dre?

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  11. Re:Seriously? by sconeu · · Score: 3, Funny

    I heard a rumor about a slashdotter who saw a picture of a guy who saw an iPad. I submitted it as a story. kdawson promised me it would be front page tomorrow.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  12. Nice try by davidbrit2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Betelgeuse is about to explode in a supernova. This rumor is almost certainly not true. First, it's posted on a doomsday forum. Second, it's three times removed...

    Nice try, but I'm not falling for that one.

  13. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't think any neutrino detector can detect them. Not even IceCube.

    What about Dr Dre?

    Oh right! Forgot about Dre.

  14. The real doomsday sign is the cubs wining it all! by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 3, Funny

    The real doomsday sign is the cubs wining it all!

  15. Re:Seriously? by fishexe · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sure, but of all the places to go for bad rumors and conspiracy theories, slashdot is my favorite!

    I wonder if the other trashy news (+rumor) sites say "this was first reported on Slashdot, which means it's probably false."

    --
    "I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
  16. Re:Who cares? by thePsychologist · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, 640 light years ought to be far enough for anyone!

    --
    "What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson