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Supernova about to give Earth a second sun

post #1 of 25
1/19/11 at 9:24pm
Thread Starter 

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/tatooines-twin-suns-coming-to-a-planet-near-you-just-as-soon-as-betelgeuse-explodes/story-fn5fsgyc-1225991009247

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post #2 of 25
1/19/11 at 11:17pm

I was gonna call BS until I realized the headline (and thread title) was just fluff to get us reading :P  Also, Betelgeuse is the 10th largest known star, not the 2nd... and that would be in the galaxy, not universe... 

 

 

I'd be very surprised if we could predict the supernova to a year, let alone a range of millenia.  However, this would be WICKED cool, and I'd love nothing more than to gaze upon such a close supernova through a scope in my lifetime (with the proper filters, of course ;) ). 

 

Is there a link to the source paper? 

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post #3 of 25
1/20/11 at 12:13am

So that was what the Mayans predicted for 2012? A few weeks of no nights?

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post #4 of 25
1/20/11 at 1:00am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by El_Doug View Post

I was gonna call BS until I realized the headline (and thread title) was just fluff to get us reading :P  Also, Betelgeuse is the 10th largest known star, not the 2nd... and that would be in the galaxy, not universe... 

 

 

I'd be very surprised if we could predict the supernova to a year, let alone a range of millenia.  However, this would be WICKED cool, and I'd love nothing more than to gaze upon such a close supernova through a scope in my lifetime (with the proper filters, of course ;) ). 

 

Is there a link to the source paper? 


Yes, the article has errors.  It is certainly not the 2nd largest.

 

And you wouldn't need to look at it with a scope unless you wanted to see a lot of detail, it would be plainly visible to the naked eye because it would be massive.

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post #5 of 25
1/20/11 at 9:58am

OMG, i thought Star wars was only a movie. 

Dont you think that explosion could affect our planet? 

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post #6 of 25
1/20/11 at 10:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by desktophifi View Post

OMG, i thought Star wars was only a movie. 

Dont you think that explosion could affect our planet? 



from wikipedia

"Betelgeuse is currently thought to lie around 640 light years away,"

 

So no, except to give a great show, when and if it goes.

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post #7 of 25
1/20/11 at 10:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rroseperry View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by desktophifi View Post

OMG, i thought Star wars was only a movie. 

Dont you think that explosion could affect our planet? 



from wikipedia

"Betelgeuse is currently thought to lie around 640 light years away,"

 

So no, except to give a great show, when and if it goes.


And we definitely won't be around to see it.
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post #8 of 25
1/20/11 at 10:43am

Unless it happened already, say, 639 years ago.

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post #9 of 25
1/20/11 at 3:13pm

Our magnetic energy is waning as we get near the polarity shift. If high energy waves from a supernova were to hit us now,  me thinks it wouldn't take but a blink of an eye.

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post #10 of 25
1/20/11 at 3:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy Camper View Post

Our magnetic energy is waning as we get near the polarity shift. If high energy waves from a supernova were to hit us now,  me thinks it wouldn't take but a blink of an eye.



huh?

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post #11 of 25
1/20/11 at 3:46pm

I saw a great National Geographic show called 'Inside the Milky Way', and it said that Chinese astronomers recorded a bright star appearing in the sky that was bright enough to be seen during the day. It happened roughly 1000 years ago and only lasted for a few months. It was a supernova and it produced the crab nebula. The youngest stars to found in our galaxy are in the crab nebula.

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post #12 of 25
1/20/11 at 5:57pm

This article title is a pretty good example of how to get tons of people to read something sensational and not be factually inaccurate: rely on something that could happen at any point from here on through infinity. Nonetheless, it was entertaining. I would love to live to see this, though with my luck it will happen during the summer in the northern hemisphere, when Orion is out of sight until right before sunrise in August. I guess that just means it would show up later in the day, which would be awesome on its own, but which would deny us the nighttime spectacle I'm imagining in my head.

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post #13 of 25
1/20/11 at 6:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rroseperry View Post

huh?


Our magnetic field has been weakening over the past decade or so, but it's not really a big deal. It's happened many times in the earth's history.

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post #14 of 25
1/20/11 at 6:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by logwed View Post



Quote:
Originally Posted by rroseperry View Post

huh?


Our magnetic field has been weakening over the past decade or so, but it's not really a big deal. It's happened many times in the earth's history.



Isn't this one of the ten billion things that's supposed to kill us in 2012? I could swear I've read somebody play this up before.

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post #15 of 25
1/20/11 at 7:01pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Argyris View Post

This article title is a pretty good example of how to get tons of people to read something sensational and not be factually inaccurate: rely on something that could happen at any point from here on through infinity. Nonetheless, it was entertaining. I would love to live to see this, though with my luck it will happen during the summer in the northern hemisphere, when Orion is out of sight until right before sunrise in August. I guess that just means it would show up later in the day, which would be awesome on its own, but which would deny us the nighttime spectacle I'm imagining in my head.


Don't you mean "not be factually accurate" ?

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