2012 may just have a meaning afterall

[T@T]

No, not the end of the earth per say but the end of a super massive star called Betelgeuse could happen by 2012.

In the Star Wars saga, George Lucas imagined a world where twin suns rose and fell in the horizon. Looks like his vision may not be so far-fetched.
Astrophysicists say that Betelgeuse, the red super-giant that is the ninth brightest star in the sky, is losing mass—an indication of gravitational collapse. Brad Carter, a senior lecturer of physics at the University of Southern Queensland, explained to news.com.au that the star is essentially running out of the fuel at its core. “This fuel keeps Betelgeuse shining and supported. When this fuel runs out the star will literally collapse in upon itself and it will do so very quickly,” he said. The subsequent explosion will appear tens of millions of times brighter than the sun, meaning 24-hours of light on Earth.

“It goes bang, it explodes, it lights up," Carter said. "We'll have incredible brightness for a brief period of time for a couple of weeks and then over the coming months it begins to fade and then eventually it will be very hard to see at all.”

And while the celestial event could take place before the end of 2012, it may not occur for a million years.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/21/...y-2012/?hpt=T2

For an idea how big this sucker is our sun is the little pinhead with the arrow pointing to it.

[worth]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...euse-and-2012/

[Slava]

OK, I'm just going to ask and maybe look really dumb here....won't we still have night because past of the earth would still face away? What am I missing?

[northcrunk]

This happens to all stars once they have burned all of their fuel and will happen to ours, we're still billions of years off from that though

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

This happens to all stars once they have burned all of their fuel and will happen to ours, we're still billions of years off from that though

It sounds like you equate a supernova event to "no big deal".

I'm siding with the article worth posted.

[getbak]

Don't say its name 3 times.

[worth]

From my link:

At 600+ light years, a supernova would be pretty bright, but hardly bright enough to be a second Sun, as both article say. Sorry, no Tatooine-like sunsets for us. It wouldn’t even be as bright as the full Moon, really, but certainly far brighter than Venus. Enough to cast a shadow, which would actually be pretty cool.

Also, no, our sun will not go supernova. It does not contain enough mass. It will go into a red giant phase and then eventually become a white dwarf.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by Slava

OK, I'm just going to ask and maybe look really dumb here....won't we still have night because past of the earth would still face away? What am I missing?

I think it would depend on where this thing is. If by some chance it sits opposite of the Sun with Earth in the middle in some way where the when the Earth is faced away from the Sun it faces this thing, then we could possibly have 24 hours of light.

But that sounds pretty farfetched.

[Cowperson]

Good luck predicting the day a star goes supernova.

In any event, if you see it in 2012, that means the explosion actually happened hundreds of years ago and if it did explode in 2012, you wouldn't see the explosion for hundreds of years into the future.

Kind of useless event for 2012 disaster purposes.

But I like the name Beetlejuice, er, Betelgeuse.

Cowperson

[photon]

You should put a link to your source in your post T@T

And some advice to anyone, do NOT go to Huffington Post (where this comes from) for your science news.

The star could go supernova in 2012, or it could go supernova 102012, so I don't think an event with a one in one hundred thousand change is overly interesting to think about before it happens.

And it wouldn't be two suns, we'd be lucky if it would be as bright as the moon. Still would be VERY cool though, I'd love this to happen (or had already happened 600 years ago, since the star is 600ly away).

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Slava

OK, I'm just going to ask and maybe look really dumb here....won't we still have night because past of the earth would still face away? What am I missing?

This Star is in Orion. I stare at it every night from my back deck so there would definitely be no night here. It may affect parts of the world less but would be pretty bad here.*

* If it put off as much light as the article says it will.

[worth]

The star is 600 light years away, so yes, if we see the supernova tonight, it actually went supernova 600 years ago.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Barnes

* If it put off as much light as the article says it will.

Which it won't. HuffPost + Science Article should always = Assume it's wrong unless proven right. And even then be careful.

If they published an article about gravity, I'd be velcroing myself to the planet so I didn't fall off.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

This happens to all stars once they have burned all of their fuel and will happen to ours, we're still billions of years off from that though

[T@T]

Originally Posted by photon

You should put a link to your source in your post T@T

And some advice to anyone, do NOT go to Huffington Post (where this comes from) for your science news.

The star could go supernova in 2012, or it could go supernova 102012, so I don't think an event with a one in one hundred thousand change is overly interesting to think about before it happens.

And it wouldn't be two suns, we'd be lucky if it would be as bright as the moon. Still would be VERY cool though, I'd love this to happen (or had already happened 600 years ago, since the star is 600ly away).

Crap I forgot as i had to rush out the door for an hour or so, the link is from Time.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/21/...y-2012/?hpt=T2

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Slava

OK, I'm just going to ask and maybe look really dumb here....won't we still have night because past of the earth would still face away? What am I missing?

I think the star is very high in the northern sky so it should be visible at all times in the northern hemisphere.

[Delthefunky]

Well I'm not taking any chances. Off to the ammo dealer I go.

[Delthefunky]

More importantly from the same article:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/29/...ip-of-the-sun/

[HHW]

Originally Posted by Barnes

This Star is in Orion. I stare at it every night from my back deck so there would definitely be no night here.

That depends on the time of year - Orion (and Betelgeuse) are not visible at night in the summer.

[ricosuave]

Originally Posted by T@T

does that blow anyone elses mind? or is it just me?

the sun is a pin-prick next to it...