Betelgeuse – the somber red star in the shoulder of the constellation Orion the Hunter – is one of the largest stars visible to the eye alone.
The star Betelgeuse might someday appear as a spectacular explosion in our sky, a supernova.
Brad Schaefer is an astronomer in Baton Rogue, Louisiana. He said Betelgeuse could become a supernova any day now.
Brad Schaefer: For all we know, Betelgeuse has just gone supernova. Betelgeuse is about a thousand light years away. So if Betelgeuse has gone supernova anytime in the last thousand years, the light of this supernova explosion could be speeding to us even as we speak – maybe it will arrive tonight – and suddenly Betelgeuse will flash into being brighter than a million full moons in the sky – all up above us. It would be a spectacular sight.
Schaefer said that if Betelgeuse replaced the sun in our solar system, Earth would be submerged inside this star. Its outer layers would extend halfway to Jupiter. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant. It long ago burned up its main star fuel – hydrogen – that keep stars like our sun shining.
Stars like our sun shine due to thermonuclear fusion. They fuse light atoms in their cores to make heavier atoms. Eventually stars run out of the raw materials needed for fusion. Then, if a star is massive enough, it’ll explode as a supernova.
Schaefer said that even if Betelgeuse became a supernova, it would be too far away to do us any actual harm.
By the way, if our sun went supernova, just the blast wave would destroy Earth. The nearest star to our sun, Alpha Centauri, is not likely to become a supernova. But if a star at that distance did go supernova, there would be very heavy damage here on Earth.
How close could Earth be to a supernova, without suffering damage? Schaefer said that people argue back and forth about this (there are many unknown effects that go into these sorts of calculations), but, he said, a typical figure might be 100 light years away.
Thanks today to Research Corporation – a foundation for the advancement of science.
NOTE: Schaefer was off a bit on the distance to Betelgeuse. Its estimated distance is 520 light-years away.
Our thanks to:
Brad Schaefer
Louisiana State University
There’s a few problems with Brad Schaefer’s comments. One, already noted is the current estimate for Betelgeuse is between 497 ly to ~789 ly (643ly +/- 146).
Secondly, there is now way it is going to be brighter than a million full moons. The moon has a magnitude of -11 and the Sun -26. That makes the Sun 1,000,000 brighter than the moon (15 magnitudes). Betelgeuse will likely be a magnitude -12 when it goes supernova, making it about 2.5 times brighter than the Moon. Not a million. it is very unlikely to be as bright as the Sun. It will certainly be visible in daylight.
Lastly, the size is estimated as between the size of the orbit of Mars to beyond Jupiter and halfway to Saturn from Jupiter (radius 1.2 to 7.8 AU, to Jupiter being 5.5).
what type of light waves will be emitted, and what will their effects be on such things as photosynthesis?
[...] silencio de la NASA sobre el tema y la historia lanzada recientemente acerca de la estrella Betelgeuse convirtiéndose en supernova este año y la creación de un segundo sol en nuestros cielos, sobre [...]
[...] ^ a b c en Betelgeuse could explode as a supernova » Radio Podcasts | Earth & Sky [...]
[...] silencio de la NASA sobre el tema y la historia lanzada recientemente acerca de la estrella Betelgeuse convirtiéndose en supernova este año y la creación de un segundo sol en nuestros cielos, sobre [...]