More news about Betelgeuse.

[walterpthefirst]

 

Hello.  

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Orion_Head_to_Toe.jpg

 

If you recall there was a lot of excitement and speculation about the star Betelgeuse in 2019 / 20.  That star (the bright orange one in the top left corner of this Wiki image) is a red supergiant and is nearing the end of its life.  Being so massive it is expected to undergo a catastrophic collapse and explode as a supernova.  This would be a spectacular, but not dangerous, light show in our skies. Betelgeuse is approximately 550 light years away, which on galactic terms, is right in our own back yard. 

 

The excitement I mentioned before had to do with a period of dimming, where the star was seen to fade considerably.  This was taken by some as a prelude to it becoming a supernova.  That didn’t happen, but we now know that that Betelgeuse underwent a violent eruption, ejecting a huge quantity of gas from it surface, which then cooled to become dust.  It was this cloud of dust that partially obscured the star, dimming it significantly.  The star has since resumed fairly normal activity and it is generally thought that a supernova is not likely to occur soon.

 

However, we are talking about deep space here and ‘soon’ could mean centuries or millennia before Betelgeuse finally reaches the point of no return, collapses and explodes.  Being 550 light years away it could have gone supernova already and it might take hundreds of years for that light to reach us.  Who knows?  Anyway, a new scientific paper has just been published that throws some light on that recent dimming event and what we can expect a red supergiant star like Betelgeuse to do, just before explodes.

 

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.10883.pdf

 

Ok, please don’t get the wrong idea about the title.  By using the title ‘Explosion Imminent’ the scientists are NOT referring specifically to Betelgeuse.   What they are actually saying is that if ANY red supergiant star displayed the behaviour they describe, it would be likely to explode as a supernova within about a year.

 

Davies, Plez and Petrault predict that in the immediate run up to a supernova a red supergiant will undergo multiple episodes of gas eruptions from its surface which will then become a thick cocoon of dust, obscuring the light of that star.  As we know from Betelgeuse’s 2019 eruption, the dust that partially obscured that star has since dissipated and it is now shining more less normally.

 

But if we were to see multiple, much-larger outbursts and an almost complete dimming of that star then, according to this paper, a supernova is imminent.  The benefit of seeing these signs is that telescopes across the world and satellites in space could be put on a rota, with a constant watch being maintained. 

 

Curiously enough, the very first signs of a supernova explosion in progress wouldn’t be visible at all.  Instead, when the star’s core finally collapses a burst of neutrinos will radiate outward.  Because these particles can pass easily through even the densest matter they can stream out from the core, uninhibited by the immense pressures and densities found there.  So, the underground, under ice and underwater neutrino observatories that make up the SuperNova Early Warning System would be the first instruments to detect Betelgeuse’s demise.  These facilities would then send e-mail alerts to all of the other telescopes (optical, infra-red, ultra-violet, radio and gamma ray) on the Earth or orbiting above it.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperNova_Early_Warning_System

 

Please note that while Betelgeuse is a highly unstable, massive star nearing the end of its lifetime, these events are not to be measured or judged from a human viewpoint of years or decades.  Most likely it will be thousands of years before it goes supernova.

 

However, there is a small part of me that would like to see it explode in my lifetime!

 

Thank you,

 

Walter.

[pantheory]

4 hours ago, walterpthefirst said:

 

Hello.  

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Orion_Head_to_Toe.jpg

 

If you recall there was a lot of excitement and speculation about the star Betelgeuse in 2019 / 20.  That star (the bright orange one in the top left corner of this Wiki image) is a red supergiant and is nearing the end of its life.  Being so massive it is expected to undergo a catastrophic collapse and explode as a supernova.  This would be a spectacular, but not dangerous, light show in our skies. Betelgeuse is approximately 550 light years away, which on galactic terms, is right in our own back yard. 

 

The excitement I mentioned before had to do with a period of dimming, where the star was seen to fade considerably.  This was taken by some as a prelude to it becoming a supernova.  That didn’t happen, but we now know that that Betelgeuse underwent a violent eruption, ejecting a huge quantity of gas from it surface, which then cooled to become dust.  It was this cloud of dust that partially obscured the star, dimming it significantly.  The star has since resumed fairly normal activity and it is generally thought that a supernova is not likely to occur soon.

 

However, we are talking about deep space here and ‘soon’ could mean centuries or millennia before Betelgeuse finally reaches the point of no return, collapses and explodes.  Being 550 light years away it could have gone supernova already and it might take hundreds of years for that light to reach us.  Who knows?  Anyway, a new scientific paper has just been published that throws some light on that recent dimming event and what we can expect a red supergiant star like Betelgeuse to do, just before explodes.

 

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.10883.pdf

 

Ok, please don’t get the wrong idea about the title.  By using the title ‘Explosion Imminent’ the scientists are NOT referring specifically to Betelgeuse.   What they are actually saying is that if ANY red supergiant star displayed the behaviour they describe, it would be likely to explode as a supernova within about a year.

 

Davies, Plez and Petrault predict that in the immediate run up to a supernova a red supergiant will undergo multiple episodes of gas eruptions from its surface which will then become a thick cocoon of dust, obscuring the light of that star.  As we know from Betelgeuse’s 2019 eruption, the dust that partially obscured that star has since dissipated and it is now shining more less normally.

 

But if we were to see multiple, much-larger outbursts and an almost complete dimming of that star then, according to this paper, a supernova is imminent.  The benefit of seeing these signs is that telescopes across the world and satellites in space could be put on a rota, with a constant watch being maintained. 

 

Curiously enough, the very first signs of a supernova explosion in progress wouldn’t be visible at all.  Instead, when the star’s core finally collapses a burst of neutrinos will radiate outward.  Because these particles can pass easily through even the densest matter they can stream out from the core, uninhibited by the immense pressures and densities found there.  So, the underground, under ice and underwater neutrino observatories that make up the SuperNova Early Warning System would be the first instruments to detect Betelgeuse’s demise.  These facilities would then send e-mail alerts to all of the other telescopes (optical, infra-red, ultra-violet, radio and gamma ray) on the Earth or orbiting above it.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperNova_Early_Warning_System

 

Please note that while Betelgeuse is a highly unstable, massive star nearing the end of its lifetime, these events are not to be measured or judged from a human viewpoint of years or decades.  Most likely it will be thousands of years before it goes supernova.

 

However, there is a small part of me that would like to see it explode in my lifetime!

 

Thank you,

 

Walter.

 

Yup, the closest supernovae possibility,

[TheRedneckProfessor]

I'm just going to say it, Beetlejuice was one of the stupidest films ever made, in my opinion.  

[walterpthefirst]

7 hours ago, pantheory said:

 

Yup, the closest supernovae possibility,

 

Nope.

 

That honour falls to IK Pegasi, which at 154 light years is much closer than Beetlejuice's 550.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IK_Pegasi

 

[☆ DarkBishop ☆]

2 hours ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

I'm just going to say it, Beetlejuice was one of the stupidest films ever made, in my opinion.  

That is a cult classic. And thats one cult im proud to be a part of  

[TheRedneckProfessor]

1 hour ago, DarkBishop said:

That is a cult classic. And thats one cult im proud to be a part of  

I will say no more.

[pantheory]

6 hours ago, walterpthefirst said:

 

Nope.

 

That honour falls to IK Pegasi, which at 154 light years is much closer than Beetlejuice's 550.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IK_Pegasi

 

 

OK, I stand corrected.