Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Scientist: Earth Could Have "New Sun" Within a Year
Pundit Press ^ | 1/22/11 | Aurelius

Posted on 01/22/2011 10:06:34 AM PST by therightliveswithus

People love to hype 2012 as the end of the world. It's BS, but hey, when it gets into the public consciousness, things stick.

Anywho, a scientist named Brad Carter is predicting that the star Betelgeuse is expected to go super-nova very soon. If this happens, the sky that we look at could have two stars in it, even though Betelgeuse is 1,300 light years away. On the bright side, Carter assures us that we won't all die

(Excerpt) Read more at punditpress.blogspot.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: astronomy; catastrophism; sun; weirdnews
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 next last
To: A_perfect_lady

“Dang, you beat me to it....”

You got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat us Beetlejuice fans.


21 posted on 01/22/2011 10:25:03 AM PST by jessduntno ("'How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think." - Adolph Hitler)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus
If this happens, the sky that we look at could have two stars in it, even though Betelgeuse is 1,300 light years away.

Most estimates I've seen have it around 600 LY away.

"When a star goes bang, the first we will observe of it is a rain of tiny particles called nuetrinos.

I have more confidence in someone who can spell "neutrinos" correctly. Would you trust a cardiologist who wanted to talk to you about haert surgery?

I don't know how Mr. Carter knows that the Earth is safe, but I'd like something a little more concrete.

Gamma ray bursts are the killers and they follow the poles of the supernova. Betelgeuse's pole isn't pointing at us.

In the year 1006 there was another supernova, SN 1006 that was visible on earth for two days. It was called a "guest star."

A lot longer than that. The original author was probably confused by the wikipedia entry "First appearing in the constellation of Lupus between April 30 and May 1 of that year," which simply tells the first night it showed up on, not its total duration of visibility. Later in the same article it states "There appear to have been two distinct phases in the early evolution of this supernova. There was first a three-month period at which it was at its brightest; after this period it diminished, then returned for a period of about eighteen months."

As for a "second sun", Betelgeuse's supernova would likely be about half as bright as the full moon. Impressive? Yes, very. But not a second sun.

22 posted on 01/22/2011 10:31:39 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Washington is finally rid of the Kennedies. Free at last, thank God almighty we are free at last.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Betelgeuse- Arabic-”The Armpit of the Giant”!


23 posted on 01/22/2011 10:36:04 AM PST by Empireoftheatom48 (Tag line under construction, please mind the gap!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus

It’s Bush’s fault.

Womyn and minorities will be hardest hit.


24 posted on 01/22/2011 10:36:08 AM PST by Bubba_Leroy (The Obamanation Continues)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus

There’s no way to pin down when a star will go kablooey, it could be in 5 minutes, it could be thousands of years from now.

Even when it does, I find it hard to take those “second sun” claims seriously.


25 posted on 01/22/2011 10:40:44 AM PST by Ellendra (Profanity is the mark of a conversational cripple.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus
Carter assures us that we won't all die

Obamacare will take credit for that.

-PJ

26 posted on 01/22/2011 10:42:03 AM PST by Political Junkie Too ("Comprehensive" reform bills only end up as incomprehensible messes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fido969
Cr@ppy reporting.

Sensationalized reporting - it grabs readership.

When we were house-hunting in a new town a few years ago I spotted a newspaper headline that blared: "Local Murders Up 100% Last Year." Alarmed, I immediately dropped money into the machine only to learn there had been one murder, 100% more than the previous year when there were none. But the sensational headline sold at least one paper.

27 posted on 01/22/2011 10:42:07 AM PST by Bernard Marx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus

I would imagine by now, they’re all out of sunblock at the local drug store on Betelgeuse 3.


28 posted on 01/22/2011 10:42:11 AM PST by 6SJ7 (atlasShruggedInd = TRUE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jessduntno
It's show time!


29 posted on 01/22/2011 10:43:56 AM PST by P8riot (I carry a gun because I can't carry a cop.....Eagle Scout since Sep 9, 1970)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus

BTW, according to Wikipedia, the best current estimate of the distance to Betelgeuse is 643 ± 146 light years. 1300 light years is a very upper bound. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse

It is also fairly young, only about 12 million years old. Massive stars like Betelgeuse, at least 10 million times the sun’s mass, burn very quickly and die in Type II super nova events.


30 posted on 01/22/2011 10:45:41 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Socialists are to economics what circle squarers are to math; undaunted by reason or derision.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus

I wouldn’t buy anything from someone named Carter. Even if he throws in a rabbit and a top hat.


31 posted on 01/22/2011 10:46:42 AM PST by Hardraade (I want gigaton warheads now!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bernard Marx

1/0 = Inf. If there had been one murder in the previous year and two this year, that would be a 100% increase. I do not think my town has ever had a recorded murder. The town next door, similar in demographics, had its last murder over 25 years ago, when some guy was having an affair with a woman in his church’s choir. When she broke it off, her lover killed her husband.


32 posted on 01/22/2011 10:49:48 AM PST by Lonesome in Massachussets (Socialists are to economics what circle squarers are to math; undaunted by reason or derision.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus
If you're lucky you get to ride in a gold meteorite
If you're not, you get a mouth, a mouthful of red Kryptonite
You better move over
Here comes a Super-nova

Kryptonite- - -
Destination moon
If you're in outer space
Don't feel out of place
'cause there are thousands of others like you
Others like you
33 posted on 01/22/2011 10:52:47 AM PST by Allegra
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus
"On the bright side, Carter assures us that we won't all die."

I'm hoarding rice just in case.

34 posted on 01/22/2011 10:53:14 AM PST by blam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lonesome in Massachussets

I guess you’ll have to take that headline writer to Math Court.


35 posted on 01/22/2011 10:56:16 AM PST by Bernard Marx
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio

It is the Red Giant in Orion. It takes 1300 years for the light to reach Earth. It has already exploded if he is right. Over a thousand years ago.


36 posted on 01/22/2011 10:59:12 AM PST by screaminsunshine (Surfers Rule)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio
Betelgeuse's pole isn't pointing at us.

No. It was pointing at Winona Ryder. (rimshot)
37 posted on 01/22/2011 11:04:03 AM PST by RandallFlagg (Let this chant follow BHO everywhere he goes: "You lie. You lie. You lie.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: therightliveswithus

Of course it will have exploded in the past, that is obvious, but irrelevent.


38 posted on 01/22/2011 11:34:06 AM PST by 83Vet4Life
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Lonesome in Massachussets

I wonder why they didn’t shore up the “Old Man in the Mountain” with steel reinforcement or something. It’s sort of like Mt. Rushmore suddenly one day just collapsing. (We had a stone bridge in our hometown that just one day FELL into a pile of rubble in the river; destroyed one of the biggest tourist attractions in the town. They were doing road construction on the road beside it and didn’t to my knowledge shore up the bridge. It had escaped Sherman only to be leveled by neglect.)


39 posted on 01/22/2011 11:41:31 AM PST by Twinkie (LEFTIST FREE SPEECH GOOD. - CONSERVATIVE FREE SPEECH BAD.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: raybbr

Yeah, but if it happened 1299 years ago, how would we know?


40 posted on 01/22/2011 11:44:26 AM PST by Tanniker Smith (I didn't know she was a liberal when I married her.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson