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Posted: 5/25/2023 9:17:15 PM EDT
I've been following Betelgeuse for a few years now.  It is the supergiant orange star on Orion's shoulder. If it were located where our Sun is in our solar system, the outer edge would touch Jupiter.

Back in 2019, Betelgeuse dimmed remarkably, so remarkably, that many were wondering what was going on, it was called "the Great Dimming".  Over the course of months, the star visibly dimmed to about 70% its normal brightness.  

During 2020 Betelgeuse regained its brightness.  Fast forward to just a few weeks ago.  Betelgeuse is now over 150% brighter than it usually is, and "cycling" (its a variable star) twice as fast as normal, leading many astronomers to believe Betelgeuse might be in the beginning stages of going Supernova!

If it did go supernova, this will be the first "close" star to go supernova since the the star that created the Crab Nebula went supernova in 1054.  That supernova was so bright, it was stated that it shined during the day and was many times brighter than the full moon at night.  By "close", Betelgeuse is around 700 light years away, so it is far enough to not be a danger, but close enough to greatly outshine our moon if it ever does go Supernova.  

Man, it would be awesome to see!

BTW, there is a supernova in the Pinwheel galaxy (M101) happening at the moment.  Even though it is 21,000,000 lighyears away, it is extremely bright.  Just think of what a Supernova just 700 light years away would look like!

M101 Supernova




Is This The Supernova Signal We Were Waiting For?
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:19:25 PM EDT
[#1]
My man Anton doesn't seem to know what's going on with it.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:19:29 PM EDT
[#2]
Big badda boom!

ETA: Maybe we'll see those attack ships in fire...
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:19:33 PM EDT
[#3]
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:20:13 PM EDT
[#4]
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:21:35 PM EDT
[#5]
Dayo! Daaaaaayyyoooo!
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:23:21 PM EDT
[#6]
Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn’t it have already gone supernova and we just have not seen it yet?  It would take 70 yrs for that light to get here?
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:24:14 PM EDT
[#7]
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:25:18 PM EDT
[#8]
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:25:56 PM EDT
[#9]
I wonder how long it would shine brighter than the moon?  A few years of a second moon would be pretty sweet I could tag out on deer every year.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:26:15 PM EDT
[#10]
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Quoted:
Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn’t it have already gone supernova and we just have not seen it yet?  It would take 70 yrs for that light to get here?
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It possibly could have went supernova back before Columbus sailed.  

1 light year = the distance light travels in one year.  So if it is 700 light years away, that light is already 700 years old once it reaches our eyes.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:26:50 PM EDT
[#11]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?
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Yes
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:27:04 PM EDT
[#12]
If I recall correctly, the Crab Nebula is about twice the distance as Betelgeuse.

It would be amazing to see, but it could cycle for thousands more years.  The Bayer designation is Alpha Orionis, which suggests that in the last few hundred years it may have been brighter than Rigel, which got the designation of Beta Orionis, despite it being dimmer than Rigel today.

Often Bayer used the brightest star for Alpha, but not always.  Sometimes he used position in the constellation as well so that's just a working theory.  It's a theory that I think has merit.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:27:19 PM EDT
[#13]
Pretty interesting, it's the closest star of sufficient mass to go supernova.

And yes, there is a pretty good chance it already went boom and we just can't see it yet, due to distance and the speed of light.

edit:

Torf made me question myself and I went back and looked up the shit I read a while ago.

Looks like Betelgeuse is the closest star that is definitely above the mass limit for a type II supernova (the big booms). There are four stars closer (IK Pegasi, Spica, Alpha Lupi, and Antares) that are big enough for at least a Type I supernova, but since the mass needed for a Type 2 is uncertain (between 8 and 15 stellar masses), none of these are over the upper limit.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:28:27 PM EDT
[#14]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?
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Nah, when it goes super nova the light travels super fast. We see it almost instantly.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:29:17 PM EDT
[#15]
It would be uber-cool if it did supernova & Orion was changed—that’s truly a “once in a human lifetime” moment.

I never got to see any A-bombs nor H-bombs tests, even after nagging my dad to go before they stopped—i think this would be almost as cool.

Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:29:42 PM EDT
[#16]
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Nah, when it goes super nova the light travels super fast. We see it almost instantly.
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Quoted:
Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?


Nah, when it goes super nova the light travels super fast. We see it almost instantly.

Attachment Attached File
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:31:13 PM EDT
[#17]
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Quoted:
Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't it have already gone supernova and we just have not seen it yet?  It would take 70 yrs for that light to get here?
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At a distance if 700 LY it would take 700 years to get here.  The distance to Betelgeuse is thought to be closer to 550 LY, IIRC.  Measuring the distance to a star with a diffuse and variable surface characteristics is more imprecise, since the parallax is tougher to nail down.

With distant stars the measurement "error" increases.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:32:00 PM EDT
[#18]
That could really screw things up here on earth. Many plants and animals have cicadian rhythm. If it is too bright at night during the summer corn crops could fail, among others.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:32:51 PM EDT
[#19]
"My God! Its full of stars!"
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:33:02 PM EDT
[#20]
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?


Nah, when it goes super nova the light travels super fast. We see it almost instantly.

/media/mediaFiles/sharedAlbum/confused-britney-spears--83.gif

The man is a professor...
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:33:09 PM EDT
[#21]
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Quoted:
Pretty interesting, it's the closest start of sufficient mass to go supernova.

And yes, there is a pretty good chance it already went boom and we just can't see it yet, due to distance and the speed of light.
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Is it?  I think it's the closest candidate for supernovae in our lifetime, but I think there are closer stars which have the necessary mass, just not as far along.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:33:46 PM EDT
[#22]
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:34:46 PM EDT
[#23]
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:35:20 PM EDT
[#24]
Someone will blame it on man-made climate change.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:35:28 PM EDT
[#25]
It may have already gone supernova, now how long before we see it
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:37:51 PM EDT
[#26]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?
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Yes, IMO this is the closest we get to time travel. Seeing events that occurred 700 years ago
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:39:17 PM EDT
[#27]
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Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?
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That's correct.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:41:05 PM EDT
[#28]
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Nah, when it goes super nova the light travels super fast. We see it almost instantly.
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Stick to economics prof.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:41:42 PM EDT
[#29]
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Quoted:
Stick to economics prof.
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Adjust your sarcasm meter mike3000
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:42:17 PM EDT
[#30]
Or it could be like 1 million years right?
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:44:12 PM EDT
[#31]
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Quoted:


Nah, when it goes super nova the light travels super fast. We see it almost instantly.
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Quoted:
Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?


Nah, when it goes super nova the light travels super fast. We see it almost instantly.
Screen name checks out
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:46:49 PM EDT
[#32]
Is this something we need to start digging bunkers for or walking into the yard and staring at?
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:48:00 PM EDT
[#33]
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Quoted:


Adjust your sarcasm meter mike3000
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Quoted:
Stick to economics prof.


Adjust your sarcasm meter mike3000
I was being sarcastic
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:50:09 PM EDT
[#34]
Sometime in the next 20 to 500000 years...
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:51:55 PM EDT
[#35]
That would be incredible.
I'm jealous of past mankind that got to witness a supernova.

I wonder what they thought about it being they didn't have the knowledge of the cosmos like we do today?
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:53:11 PM EDT
[#36]
The stars are fake Satanic hologram designed to trick arrogant "scientists".
Prove me wrong, science boys.
Bring Mr Higgs on!
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 9:54:11 PM EDT
[#37]
Black hole sun, won't you come...
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:00:54 PM EDT
[#38]
Possible though the odds . Time just hits different when on this sort of topic. As mentioned, 700 years for us to know it happened back around the 1320s...100 years war was ongoing and I don't think the plague had even happened yet, iirc.
Let alone that star has been "dying" longer than our species has existed.

Would be absolutely amazing to see nonetheless
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:01:05 PM EDT
[#39]
The 1054 Event, and some art from that period.




Gold coin minted with supernova



Native American Petroglyphs thought to show the 1054 supernova.





Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:02:56 PM EDT
[#40]
Wouldn’t that mean that it already happens like 650 years ago and we just haven’t seen it yet?
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:04:45 PM EDT
[#41]
…..
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:06:00 PM EDT
[#42]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn’t it have already gone supernova and we just have not seen it yet?  It would take 70 yrs for that light to get here?
View Quote

Yes.  But the point of relativity is not exactly that "we just have not seen it yet" but that there is no way for us to know about it yet.  It's not so much about the limitations of the speed of light showing us something but how fast information can be transmitted.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:07:59 PM EDT
[#43]
Powerman 5000 - Supernova Goes Pop
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:08:13 PM EDT
[#44]
How fast is it cycling?

Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:08:33 PM EDT
[#45]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
If it is 700 light years away, wouldn't that mean if this event happens that it actually has already happened but what we actually see is delayed by 700 years ? So this fucker might have already gone supernova and we don't even know it?
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In my opinion, which is not the best informed but is well informed from my perspective, it has already happened and it is more likely to be apparent to us sooner rather than later (that is more likely we'll see it withing 70 years than 700 years), but it is hard to tell since we have so few well-observed cases.
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:10:03 PM EDT
[#46]
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How fast is it cycling?

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It used to go through one cycle every 400 days, now it is cycling every 200 days.  (not fast compared to other variable stars, but interesting that it was a steady 400 days for a very long time and recently changed).
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:10:36 PM EDT
[#47]
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Quoted:
It may have already gone supernova, now how long before we see it
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I doubt it…we’d have heard it by now…

Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:13:55 PM EDT
[#48]
Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:15:17 PM EDT
[#49]
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Quoted:


I doubt it…we’d have heard it by now…

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It may have already gone supernova, now how long before we see it


I doubt it…we’d have heard it by now…



Because sound travels faster than light in a vacuum, because there's less matter to get in the way to slow it down.

Link Posted: 5/25/2023 10:18:16 PM EDT
[#50]


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