Astroquizzical: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?

Starts with a Bang! ^ | February 24, 2015 | Jillian Scudder

[C19fan]

Question: If Betelgeuse explodes right now, could we see it with naked eye? It is over 400 light years away, so you might think that people would see it long after it actually happens? Betelgeuse is already one of the brightest stars in the night sky, sitting somewhere around the 8th or 9th brightest star in the night sky. (These lists don’t include the Sun, which is somewhat obviously always the brightest object in the sky.) It sits in the constellation Orion, along with a number of other bright stars, and makes up the left hand shoulder of the warrior. It looks visibly orange in the night sky, and is classified as a red supergiant star, in the later stages of its life. It’s also one of the few stars that’s close enough for us to resolve in more detail than a point source, and the pictures are pretty fun.

[Gaffer]

Exactly how do you mean “we?” People here, now, today?

[Texas Eagle]

I don’t know. An angel gets its wings?

[UCANSEE2]

"Say that two more times."

[Texas Eagle]

I’m worried about how I’m going to pay this month’s bills. I’ll lose sleep over the potential explosion of Betelguse later.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I would guess that anyone near it would get Betelguts all over them.

[ShadowAce]

[Prospero]

Interesting factoid. Our modest Sun would be invisible to the naked human eye from the vicinity of Beta Orionis (same star, less ridiculous and Michael Keaton-invoking name).

In fact, that horizon is only about fifty light years out, a very small distance, relatively speaking.

[married21]

God will buy a new blender and keep on creating.

[cripplecreek]

It gets beetle juice all over the place.

[WakeUpAndVote]

[Born to Conserve]

Was this written by a third grader?

[JPG]

It's a VERY big boy!

[Jack Hydrazine]

Betelgeuse may be a red supergiant star at only 400 light years away, but VY Canis Majoris, a red hypergiant at 3,900 light years, is the biggest star that we know of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VY_Canis_Majoris

In this video you’ll see the size comparisons of our planets and various stars.

Betelgeuse is almost the same size as Antares A that is in video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEheh1BH34Q

Antares: Betelgeuse’s Neglected Twin
http://www.aavso.org/vsots_alphasco

[xp38]

Oh I don’t know. Uhura sang about Antares.

[opbuzz]

It exploded 399 years ago, stick around a few years and watch it when it gets here.

[Mr. K]

You should worry more about Klingons on Uranus

(sorry... i had to)

[Conan the Librarian]

What happens is that we first get a big burst of Neutrinos (those detectors are gonna go wild...as far as neutrino detectors can go wild ).

It might get as bright as the article says and it will probably stay bright for a while, then Orion won’t look the same any more.

At a guess, the gas clouds in the area (Barnard’s loop and the like) will get blown away.

I’m waiting for Eta Carina to go myself. That could happen tomorrow for all we know.

[RayChuang88]

The big worry is if Betelgeuse does explode and we finally see the supernova explosion, it could be accompanied by a HUGE burst of potentially deadly radiation--especially gamma rays. And that right there will essentially eliminate all life on Earth not living deep underground, effectively resetting the life cycle of evolution (one wonders if the massive die-off in life around 250 million years ago was caused by a nearby star exploding and showering the Earth's surface with deadly gamma rays).

[uglybiker]

That's when Ford Prefect starts singing the Betelgeuse Death Anthem.

Zaglabor astragard! Hootrimansion Bambriar! ......