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about Betelgeuse
2019-Dec-23, Monday 10:39 amThis star's name is pronounced as a rhyme to "metal jews". (Also acceptable, but not formally correct, is to pronounce it like that great Michael Keaton movie.) It is in the news recently for fair reason.
Betelgeuse is what's called a variable star. It's brightness rises and falls dramatically, rather than the mostly-steady output of stars like our own sun. In recent days, it has dimmed significantly. Astronomers are debating now on whether this dimming is unusual or not, even for Betelgeuse. This debate is relevant because sudden dimming of a star is also the beginning stage of supernova.
DON'T PANIC.
First, Betelgeuse is an unusually massive star (current estimates range from 9.5 to 21 times the mass of our sun), but it is not massive enough to produce gamma ray bursts. Those radiation dumps are deadly to life throughout a galaxy, and this star is only about 640 light years away from us. Fortunately, the collapsar theory suggests that a star needs at least 40 solar masses to provide sufficient energy, so we're very much safe from that doomsday scenario.
Second, even if Betelgeuse goes supernova, the ejected material would not reach us for 20K-100K years, and our solar system's heliosphere would protect us anyway.
It would be cool, though, because we would get an exceptionally bright star in our sky, bright as the moon, probably for a few months. We would get advance notice (by a few hours) of the event thanks to astronomers who monitor neutrinos which are not hindered by all that stellar mass in the way of the explosion. Those astronomers can even sign up for email alerts, so they know when to switch their equipment to start watching the star for visual measurements. After an actual supernova, though, the constellation Orion would forever be changed. Betelgeuse is the star that marks the back shoulder of the archer, farthest from his bow.
So will it or won't it?
Most are saying no, this dimming is normal for the star. Some are saying maybe, this dimming is unusual, after taking a more cautious estimate of outlier data points. They even made some sort of Python code to show how this event compares for the last half-century.
I don't understand current political trends to dismiss the knowledge workers. Think of it. We can predict when a star will supernova, and we can even detect it before the visual light arrives, thanks to people who... you know... know stuff.
#ScienceIsCool
Betelgeuse is what's called a variable star. It's brightness rises and falls dramatically, rather than the mostly-steady output of stars like our own sun. In recent days, it has dimmed significantly. Astronomers are debating now on whether this dimming is unusual or not, even for Betelgeuse. This debate is relevant because sudden dimming of a star is also the beginning stage of supernova.
DON'T PANIC.
First, Betelgeuse is an unusually massive star (current estimates range from 9.5 to 21 times the mass of our sun), but it is not massive enough to produce gamma ray bursts. Those radiation dumps are deadly to life throughout a galaxy, and this star is only about 640 light years away from us. Fortunately, the collapsar theory suggests that a star needs at least 40 solar masses to provide sufficient energy, so we're very much safe from that doomsday scenario.
Second, even if Betelgeuse goes supernova, the ejected material would not reach us for 20K-100K years, and our solar system's heliosphere would protect us anyway.
It would be cool, though, because we would get an exceptionally bright star in our sky, bright as the moon, probably for a few months. We would get advance notice (by a few hours) of the event thanks to astronomers who monitor neutrinos which are not hindered by all that stellar mass in the way of the explosion. Those astronomers can even sign up for email alerts, so they know when to switch their equipment to start watching the star for visual measurements. After an actual supernova, though, the constellation Orion would forever be changed. Betelgeuse is the star that marks the back shoulder of the archer, farthest from his bow.
So will it or won't it?Most are saying no, this dimming is normal for the star. Some are saying maybe, this dimming is unusual, after taking a more cautious estimate of outlier data points. They even made some sort of Python code to show how this event compares for the last half-century.
I don't understand current political trends to dismiss the knowledge workers. Think of it. We can predict when a star will supernova, and we can even detect it before the visual light arrives, thanks to people who... you know... know stuff.
#ScienceIsCool