What Happens When Betelgeuse Explodes?

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday February 24, 2015 @07:10PM from the anticipating-giant-space-booms dept.

StartsWithABang writes: One of the great, catastrophic truths of the Universe is that everything has an expiration date. And this includes every single point of light in the entire sky. The most massive stars will die in a spectacular supernova explosion when their final stage of core fuel runs out. At only an estimated 600 light years distant, Betelgeuse is one (along with Antares) of the closest red supergiants to us, and it's estimated to have only perhaps 100,000 years until it reaches the end of its life. Here's the story on what we can expect to see (and feel) on Earth when Betelgeuse explodes.

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Re:a little brighter by BlackPignouf · 2015-02-24 20:28 · Score: 5, Informative

A bit more than "a little brighter".
It would go from 0.5 (now) to -10 apparent magnitude. That's about 15000 times brighter.
It would be much brighter than Venus/Jupiter/Sirius, and be visible during daytime.
It would be about as bright as a quarter moon.