11–20 of 78 posts
"When [it supernovas], the resulting explosion will be visible from Earth, even in broad daylight." That sounds spectacular! What's the time frame on that - closer to 10 years or a million years?
What's with the weird shape in the bottom left? I don't suppose stars can get squished like that, so it must be some sort of optical artifact?
> In this picture, ALMA observes the hot gas of the lower chromosphere of Betelgeuse at sub-millimeter wavelengths — where localised increased temperatures explain why it is not symmetric.
I'm guessing the "explain why it is not symmetric" part is related to this.
Betelgeuse has frequently been the subject of scare stories and rumors suggesting that it will explode
within a year, leading to exaggerated claims about the consequences of such an event. The timing
and prevalence of these rumors have been linked to broader misconceptions of astronomy, particularly
to doomsday predictions relating to the Mayan calendar. Betelgeuse is not likely to produce a gamma-ray
burst and is not close enough for its x-rays, ultraviolet radiation, or ejected material to cause
significant effects on Earth.
Something about the contrast in the image makes it seem to "pulse" as I look at it...eerie! Edit: Maybe it's just the coffee I drank?
It's one of those weird image effects that sometimes happen. Related, a combination of red and dark blue text on a black background tends to jump out from the screen for me, seemingly gaining a third dimension. I wonder how sensitive are those effects to things like ambient light levels and your display's color calibration. I'm also curious if anyone tried to explain them with reproducible steps that could be used for crafting such images on purpose?
everything is relative
Since I had to look it up out of curiosity/paranoia, I figure someone else might also be interested/relieved to know: Betelgeuse has frequently been the subject of scare stories and rumors suggesting that it will explode within a year, leading to exaggerated claims about the consequences of such an event. The timing and prevalence of these rumors have been linked to broader misconceptions of astronomy, particularly t…
>the star where the Elder Gods came from to battle the Great Old Ones [...]. Betelgeuse is also mentioned as the homeworld of the 'Ithria, a star-faring fungoid race.
That's roughly equivalent to looking at an object 250nm wide at arm's length. A red blood cell is approximately 8000nm wide.
Crazy resolving power.
Something about the contrast in the image makes it seem to "pulse" as I look at it...eerie! Edit: Maybe it's just the coffee I drank?
No, it's totally the image; I see it too and I didn't drink any coffee recently. It's one of those weird image effects that sometimes happen. Related, a combination of red and dark blue text on a black background tends to jump out from the screen for me, seemingly gaining a third dimension. I wonder how sensitive are those effects to things like ambient light levels and your display's color calibration. I'm also curi…
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html
Mr Kitaoka is quite a nice guy and will answer questions if you ask him on Facebook (his English is quite good)
I wonder what it looks like up close. Betelgeuse's mean density is a few milligrams per cubic meter, probably way less so in the photosphere, comparable to the density of the atmosphere at the edge of space. And yet it still gives light. What would it look like up close? Wispy and ghostlike? Would you even notice you're inside the star?