Rumor of Betelgeuse's Death Greatly Exaggerated

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 ..."

Comments

Of course it is.

[0100010001010011]

Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse.

There he is right there.

Who cares?

[Locke2005]

If Betelgeuse goes supernova tomorrow, it will take 495 years for the light to reach us! Or are we arguing about whether or not it went supernova 495 years ago...

Re:Who cares?

[oldspewey]

it is way beyond the point at which I give a flying fuck

The reason you give a flying fuck is that an event like this (a supernova the brightness of the full moon lasting for weeks or months) will bring out all of people's craziest fears. For some span of time, society will operate in a significantly less rational way. So you want to do your best to figure out two things: how long will this period of irrational behaviour last, and will that irrational behaviour manifest in ways that affect me?

Re:Who cares?

[AmigaMMC]

Seriously... "about to" in astronomical terms could be a million years from now. By that reasoning I could say that a lot of stars in the universe are about to go Supernova. Same as saying "Yellowstone is about to erupt."

Move on, slashdotters, once again there's nothing to see...

Seriously?

[PingXao]

I mean, does this story warrant inclusion on slashdot? There are plenty of other places to go for bad rumors and conspiracy theories.

Re:Seriously?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now we finally know what a collapsing hrung is.

ugh

[nomadic]

The blog writer complains that this rumor is "spreading like wildfire" but only cites to a single forum where the rumor apparently started. The blow writer then makes a snide comment about a "doomsday" forum, and then spends time with what appears to be an exasperated manner of speaking declaring that a supernova at that distance wouldn't cause any danger, only the original forum post never said it would--it basically saying how cool this would be to see. Why does it feel like a manufactured controversy? As best I can tell this anonymous forum poster may have been mistaken, but the reaction from the Discover blog is ridiculously out of proportion to that mistake.

Why is it?

[JoeGee]

People will take a phenomenon verified by hundreds of scientists in dozens of studies, global warming, and dismiss it because they got stuck in a snow drift. Then they'll turn around and forward an email that cites a brother's wife's uncle's cousin as breathless proof of impending calamity? I know the answer -- people are stupid. The question is purely rhetorical. :)

It isn't stupidity alone

[aepervius]

Global warming affect them, and they know that if true, it could point back at their own excess, or force them to change their lifestyle. A big problem. Whereas beltegeuse exploding, it won't affect anybody, so they don't mind spreading the rumor as a joke. The one REALLY stupid which REALLY think that would affect them, would not be able to come with the idea anyway.