Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's brightest stars, is losing mass, indicating it is collapsing. It could run out of fuel and go super-nova at any time. When that happens, for at least a few weeks, we'd see a second sun,There may also be no night during that timeframe. The Star Wars-esque scenario could happen by 2012, ... or it could take longer. The explosion could also cause a neutron star or result in the formation of a black hole 1300 light years from Earth, reports news.com.au.
SO...FREAKING...COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it will be more like this than another sun though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1054 According to wikipedia, there is a lot of debate on this though, with the short range being somewhere in the next thousand years and the long range somewhere in the next million. The problem is that they're having a hard time determining a proper value for Betelgeuse's mass-loss. Although: "At its current distance from Earth, such a supernova explosion would be the brightest recorded, outshining the Moon in the night sky and becoming easily visible in broad daylight."
....are we sure there's no impact besides just seeing it? Can't say it would be fun to get incinerated as I walk out the front door.
It's too far away to have that kind of effect. There could be a short-term change to weather patterns though.
Only indirectly, through flooding or something. Betelgeuse is centred roughly 8 degrees north of the equator so it wouldn't bake one hemisphere. I'm curious whether the heat radiation would be proportional to the light.
Depends on the spectrum... but really, if we're only talking as bright as the moon, this wouldn't change much on a level that you could feel. It wouldn't even really turn night into day.
This would be a very interesting time in life if this happened any time soon. A short period of time with no night time cycle. I'm just trying to contemplate that.
Someone reads my posts! On July 4, 1054 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" in the constellation Taurus; Simon Mitton lists 5 independent preserved Far-East records of this event. This star became about 4 times brighter than Venus in its brightest light, or about mag -6, and was visible in daylight for 23 days. Here is a picture of a painting by the people of Chaco Canyon that is believed to be a painting of the SN 1054 supernova due to the timing of its construction: This might seem a bit far-fetched, but it was recorded independently by dozens of different cultures around the world. Why not the Anasazi too? They made the sun dagger...there's no way they wouldn't have noticed...
Betelgeuse is 642 light years away, not sure where the 1300 came from . It's fairly close and I personally would worry if it were to go boom. The crab nebula is 6200 light years away. Betelgeuse is 10 times closer. The light would be ten times as intense, but not as intense as the picture posted above. Hopefully we have a healthy upper atmosphere to deflect everything headed our way.
If it happens,I dont know what Ill do..but it'll be spectaculawesome. I need to start making some plans now...Ill start by looking back in history. anyone got any ideas of what to do with 24 hours of light?..
*facepalm* Neither would Betelgeuse! Wikipedia says: "At its current distance from Earth, such a supernova explosion would be the brightest recorded, outshining the Moon in the night sky and becoming easily visible in broad daylight...The supernova could brighten to an apparent magnitude of −12 over a two-week period, then remain at that intensity for 2 to 3 months before rapidly dimming." The sun's apparent magnitude is -26, and the brightness of the full moon is about -12 also. It would NOT appear like another sun. It would appear to be an extremely bright star that you could see in daytime. It is NOT going to turn night into day. The farthest you could possibly stretch the comparison is saying its like having two moons. If you don't believe me, just read these wiki articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse#Approaching_supernova http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude I pointed out SN 1054 because it was one of the brightest supernovas in recorded history and was all-around pretty awesome in the way it was documented by so many cultures, including those in North America. It also is a pretty good indication of how these things work. If you're further interested in stuff like that, also check out SN 1006, which is actually THE brightest supernova in recorded history at an apparent magnitude of -7.5: "The Egyptian Arabic astrologer and astronomer Ali ibn Ridwan, writing in a commentary on Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, stated that the '...spectacle was a large circular body, 2-1/2 to 3 times as large as Venus. The sky was shining because of its light. The intensity of its light was a little more than a quarter that of Moon light.' Like all other observers, Ali ibn Ridwan noted that the new star was low on the southern horizon. Monks at the Benedictine abbey at St. Gallen provide independent data as to its magnitude and location in the sky, writing that 'n a wonderful manner this was sometimes contracted, sometimes diffused, and moreover sometimes extinguished....It was seen likewise for three months in the inmost limits of the south, beyond all the constellations which are seen in the sky'. This description is often taken as anecdotal evidence that the supernova was of Type Ia. Some sources state that the star was bright enough to cast shadows; it was certainly seen during daylight hours for some time, and the modern-day astronomer Frank Winkler has said that 'in the spring of 1006, people could probably have read manuscripts at midnight by its light.'" Cool hey? It's not another sun though!