What Happens When Betelgeuse Explodes?

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.

Comments

Re:Nothing important.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Says the anonymous coward while an Ebola pandemic ravages Africa.

Pandemic???

Africa has 1.1 billion people. With an average life expectancy of 71 years. Which means about 15 million deaths per year.

Ebola has killed about 8000 people in the last 15 months.

Which means that ebola has accounted for ~0.04% of African deaths since the end of 2013.

Sorry, 0.04% of your deathrate does not a pandemic make....

Note, by the by, that there were more traffic deaths in each of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and the United Republic of Tanzania then there were ebola deaths in all of Africa over the last 15 months.