Dying Star Betelgeuse Spews Fiery Nebula

astroengine writes "Betelgeuse is dying a nasty death. The star is in the final, violent stages of its life, shedding vast amounts of stellar material into space as it quickly approaches a supernova demise. But now, with the help of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, Betelgeuse's extended nebula has come to light. Comprised of silica and alumina dust, ESO astronomers have been able to image the nebula in infrared wavelengths for the first time. This is the most detailed view we've ever had of the imminent death of a titanic red supergiant star."

Comments

I've got mixed feelings

[93 Escort Wagon]

I've always loved looking at the stars, and a sky without Orion will be somewhat diminished. But, since this is going to happen anyway, I'd really like to see a spectacular supernova in my lifetime!

Old news

[PPH]

What's wrong with Slashdot editing these days? This happened 640 years ago. And you're only posting now?

Re:Old news

[Xtifr]

This happened 640 years ago.

Plus or minus 150 years! I know you were joking, but this seems like an opportune moment to point out that Betelgeuse's size and associated blobbiness has made it extremely hard to get an accurate parallax. Note that the margin of error (300 ly) is nearly half the estimated distance! I don't believe that there's another star anywhere near as close which has as much uncertainty about its distance. Also note that it's only in the last couple of decades that we've even been able to pin it down this closely! Estimates during most of the 20c. ranged from 120 ly to 1300! The Gaia mission in 2013 should finally resolve most of the remaining uncertainty.

What?

[canajin56]

Comprised of silica and alumina dust, ESO astronomers have been able to image the nebula in infrared wavelengths for the first time.

The ESO astronomers are made of silica and alumina dust?

Re:What?

[TrisexualPuppy]

The astronomers are the indirect object, putting the 'comprised of' descriptor onto the direct object, which is the Nebula.

Umm, excuse me. ESO astronomers is NOT an indirect object. ESO astronomers is the subject of have been which is a linking verb. Just so that you know, linking verbs don't have DOs or IDOs. They have predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives. Comprised of silica and alumina dust is a phrase that is used adjectivally and is intended to modify nebula. However, since the phrase was placed in the front of the sentence, at best, it is dangling. As the phrase is placed now, it modifies astronomers. Whoever modded up the parent needs to go back to grade school.

Re:How soon is soon?

[jfmiller]

Let's rephrase the question then: Can we expect to observe Betelgeuse going supernove in our lifetimes?

Re:How soon is soon?

[arth1]

According to Wikipedia it's about 640 light years away so that's the maximum delay before we see it die.

I'd argue that the star hasn't died yet until the information about its demise could theoretically have reached the observer.

There isn't such thing as a universe time on which events can be noted to have happened. Time is always a local phenomenon.
If you were to travel with the photons from Betelguese to Earth (impossible as it is), your journey would take 640 years from the point of view of someone infinitely far away with an infinitely powerful telescope, but from your point of view, it would not - the explosion just happened for you.

Re:How soon is soon?

[Pausanias]

It has a roughly uniform chance of supernova within the next million years. So one in a million chance that it will go off this year.