Posted on 09/11/2014 6:32:08 AM PDT by C19fan
If there’s one star in the sky people know about, it’s Betelgeuse.* Marking the right shoulder of the hunter Orion—remember, he’s facing us, so it’s on our left—this orange-red star is one of the brightest in the night sky. It’s been studied for as long as we’ve had telescopes, yet for all our advanced technology and knowhow, details about it are maddeningly vague. We don’t even have a good determination of how far away it is!
Still, there’s a lot we do know: It’s a red supergiant, a star that started out life already a lot bigger, more massive, and far more luminous than the Sun. Stars like that go through their nuclear fuel extremely rapidly; while the Sun is only approaching middle age at 4.5 billion years old, Betelgeuse is dying now at an age of less than 10 million years old. And when it does finally give up the ghost, it’ll do so with a bang. A very, very big bang: It’ll go supernova, one of nature’s most dramatic and ridiculously violent events.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Will it explode?
Only if you say.... Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse
...every other star.
You'll see the first effects about 4 years from now.
Yes under the right conditions you can see Andromeda with the naked eye. The bad news is our galaxy, The Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy are on a collision course with each other. Traveling at a speed of almost 700,000 miles an hour.
It worked for Mr. Creosote.
!
LMAO!
I never “got” that movie.
That has to be one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie.........
Panic!, bolt the doors! , nail boards at irregular angles across the windows!! We’re all DOOOMED!!!! At 2 million ,300,000 light years away from each other and a single light year being some 6 trillion miles I think there’s plenty of time to see the season premiere of “The Walking Dead’’ plus all the re-runs. Hey there’s a math problem for you. If The Milky Way Galaxy is 2 million, 300.000 thousand light years away from Earth and a light year being 6 trillion miles, and The Andromeda Galaxy is the same equidistant from The Milky Way and both are traveling towards each other at a speed of 700,000 miles, how soon will they collide?
It’s weird all right.
Very weird. I remember going to the movies to see it and when it was done thinking, “I don’t get it.”
Here is an interesting theory. A collision between Andromeda and the Milky Way has already happened,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
