What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
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What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
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Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#2"Nighttime will be a different story. The brightness of Betelgeuse’s supernova is about the same as the quarter moon."
This will last maybe a couple of weeks, but we don't expect it for 100K years.
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#3[deleted]
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#4I'm pretty sure Ford Prefect would be rather disappointed that his home planet got blown up...
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#5To get a feel for the tremendous size of that star:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#6The remnents of the supernova that occurred in 1054 is known as the "Crab Nebula", AKA M1 on Messier's catalog.
I remember observing this from my back garden some 10 years ago with a small telescope, but that's quite difficult now due to light polution. It's getting hard for people to see stars in many big cities, let alone fainter objects.
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#7To get a feel for the tremendous size of that star: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg
I feel those images are a little misleading. One might erroneously assume there is a dense surface akin to our star at the outer edge of these massive stars but..
"In the outer reaches of the photosphere the density is extremely low, yet the total mass of the star is believed to be no more than 20 M☉. Consequently, the average density is less than twelve parts per billion (1.119 × 10−8) that of the Sun. Such star matter is so tenuous that Betelgeuse has often been called a "red-hot vacuum"."
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#8To get a feel for the tremendous size of that star: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Star-sizes.jpg
I feel those images are a little misleading. One might erroneously assume there is a dense surface akin to our star at the outer edge of these massive stars but.. "In the outer reaches of the photosphere the density is extremely low, yet the total mass of the star is believed to be no more than 20 M☉. Consequently, the average density is less than twelve parts per billion (1.119 × 10−8) that of the Sun. Such star mat…
Also: "estimates of its mass are poorly constrained, but range from 5 to 30 times that of the Sun". Amazing for having on the order of 16 billion times its volume.
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#9Other than slightly brighter-than-normal nights, will there be any adverse effects on Earth?
The wikipedia article on near-Earth supernovae [1] suggests that Betelgeuse will be pretty safe because of its distance. But exactly how safe? What about all the delicate electronics that we've sent up to space? I suppose anything that can withstand a daily dose of solar radiation would probably be okay, but are there any specific wavelengths that could cause an issue?
Re: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?
#10Any risk of a gamma-ray burst affecting Earth?