Betelgeuse is getting active

[James Snover]

Anytime between now and the next thousand years. We may live to see Betegeuse put on a show.

Right now, in Houston, anyway, Betelgeuse is up at 05:15, so we would see it during the daytime and early morning. As winter comes on, it will be visible at night.

Jim Snover

is it really possible for it to blow in a few years time?

ive always known that shit like this happens on a thousand year timeframe, in which our existence on this planet are a mere blink of the eye.

 

[Nickyoobatz]

Anytime between now and the next thousand years. We may live to see Betegeuse put on a show.

Right now, in Houston, anyway, Betelgeuse is up at 05:15, so we would see it during the daytime and early morning. As winter comes on, it will be visible at night.

Jim Snover

Any chance of it not blowing and just becoming a neutron star?

EDIT: I meant white dwarf, I forgot neutron stars can happen after a supernova.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I hope I do get to see it, that would be awsome.

 

[thomas91169]

They happen daily in other galaxies, and about every 50 years or so in the Milky Way galaxy. They say when this one happens (if it already hasnt) that it will be clearly visible during the day. Imagine how bright that would be at night time if it can compete with our Sun during the daytime. Also i was reading up last night and ironically it was also featured on last nights new epsiode of the Universe, that there is a Binary star system WR-104 that is 8k light years away from earth that they think could potentially be a threat for a Gamma Ray burst. The reason it is such a credible threat is that the poles of that particular star are pointed directly at the earth. When a Gamma Ray burst happens the fastest way for that energy to be released is through the solar poles of the star. WR 104: A nearby gamma-ray burst? | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
Maybe JS can throw some more input on that topic

yeah i was watching that show the other day.

 

[James Snover]

Whichever outcome happens, it will explode first. Depending on how much mass it retains will decide its fate after the explosion. But it looks like the remnant will be either a neutron star or a black hole, due to it's mass.

In order of increasing mass, the options are: dwarf, neutron star, black hole.

Jim Snover

Any chance of it not blowing and just becoming a neutron star?

EDIT: I meant white dwarf, I forgot neutron stars can happen after a supernova.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

So what would happen if it were to turn into a black hole? what would that mean, if anything, for us?

 

[James Snover]

EDIT: but the process of becoming a black hole, via a supernova, would be problematic for us. But the hole itself, just sitting there where Betelgeuse used to be, no problem.

JS

Nothing at all, is the impact it would have on us if Betelgeuse became a black hole. There is already something there as massive as Betelgeuse: Betelgeuse. Any black hole that develops will be starting out very small, and with _less_ mass than Betelgeuse currently has because large quantities of mass are lost when stars go through these changes.

Now what would be nifty would be if the hole just happened to have its gravitational focus right here where we could use it as God's own Barlow lens (a lens telescopes use to magnify images, for those who don't know). But that is about it, and kind of unlikely that it would be perfectly focused where we could use it.

Jim Snover

So what would happen if it were to turn into a black hole? what would that mean, if anything, for us?

 

[astrodudepsu]

With Betelgeuse's distance of approximately 600 light years away not much would happen. Probably just an extremely bright light (greater than the brightness of the moon) in the sky for a period of time. The only dangerous thing i would think could happen which is very unlikely is some sort of gamma ray burst passing by or through Earth

Wrong, it would be devastating to life on Earth.

 

[astrodudepsu]

One of the first problems on my homework sets discussed this issue. For all we know it did already pop and right now there are super-heating particle streams coming at us at relativistic speeds. When they get here it won't be pretty.

Even if it doesn't kill living tissue it would DESTROY communications worldwide. Satellites? Gone. International Space Station? Gone.

Get it? It will be devastating to life on Earth. And chances are it WOULD kill some organic tissue.

 

[Silver2003Cobra]

Whichever outcome happens, it will explode first. Depending on how much mass it retains will decide its fate after the explosion. But it looks like the remnant will be either a neutron star or a black hole, due to it's mass.

In order of increasing mass, the options are: dwarf, neutron star, black hole.

Jim Snover

there's one more type of theorized star, that you don't have.. the Quark star

A quark star may be formed from a neutron star through a process called quark deconfinement. This process may produce a quark nova. The resultant star should have free quarks in its interior. The deconfinement process should release immense amounts of energy, perhaps being the most energetic explosions in existence. It may be that gamma ray bursts are indeed quark-novae.[citation needed] A quark star lies between neutron stars and black holes in terms of both mass and density, and if sufficient additional matter is added to a quark star, it will collapse into a black hole.

 

[James Snover]

I don't think we will ever see such a thing. It would be neat to be wrong, but I think that theory is trying to explain GRB's in terms of omnidrectional radiation, as opposed to beam-confined radiation. It would be neat, because if it is real, then yes, free quarks pack more energy than matter-antimatter reactions, the only thing (I know of) that could do so.

Jim Snover

there's one more type of theorized star, that you don't have.. the Quark star

A quark star may be formed from a neutron star through a process called quark deconfinement. This process may produce a quark nova. The resultant star should have free quarks in its interior. The deconfinement process should release immense amounts of energy, perhaps being the most energetic explosions in existence. It may be that gamma ray bursts are indeed quark-novae.[citation needed] A quark star lies between neutron stars and black holes in terms of both mass and density, and if sufficient additional matter is added to a quark star, it will collapse into a black hole.

 

[James Snover]

And it gets more interesting: A satellite called HIPPARCOS places Betelgeuse at 430 light years from Earth.

Jim Snover

 

[venom1997]

And it gets more interesting: A satellite called HIPPARCOS places Betelgeuse at 430 light years from Earth.

Jim Snover

Wow so even closer than thought of:thumbsup:

 

[whiplash306]

Mind boggling and humbling.....More info Snover. This stuff is fascinating!

 

[capnkirk52]

And it gets more interesting: A satellite called HIPPARCOS places Betelgeuse at 430 light years from Earth.

Jim Snover

This is all super cool info and interesting to read but this statement kinda shows that nobody really knows wtf is going on hahaha. If they can't even estimate the distance with an accuracy better than +/-200LY they how can they feel confident in the premise of the article?

 

[astrodudepsu]

Here's the good news.

Light travels about twice as fast as stellar ejecta from a star like BG.


So, that means if it has in fact gone boom we will get hundreds of years warning, because when we first see the light the ejecta will still be only half way here.

 

[James Snover]

Estimating stellar distances is not easy. Triangulation becomes more and more difficult the farther away things are, and triangulation is the only method we have.

Previous estimates for Betelgeuse's distance were made by ground-based optical observations. HIPPARCOS was a purpose built sattelite that used all kinds of techniques to make the data more reliable, and gave it a much wider base of it's triangle due to it being in orbit. SO you have more reliable dats, taken from a larger scale, which yields a more accurate answer. That the original estimate was off by 200-light-years, in the cosmic scale of distance, is hardly any real difference at all.

But when you are on a planet, and a big star goes up, the inverse square law is your best friend, and a third of it just left town.

As for the rest of it, that we think Betelgeuse is going to blow any moment between now and the next thouasnd or so years, the short answer is we're on pretty solid theoretical ground with that. That conclusion is not in dispute by anyone in the astronomical and physical sciences.

Jim Snover

This is all super cool info and interesting to read but this statement kinda shows that nobody really knows wtf is going on hahaha. If they can't even estimate the distance with an accuracy better than +/-200LY they how can they feel confident in the premise of the article?