Stuff like this keeps me awake at night

[DeeBye]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse



This is Betelgeuse. It's a really big star that is really close to us. This guy is a red supergiant. He is as much as 40,000,000 times bigger than our own lowly Sun. If Betelgeuse was placed where our Sun is, it would envelope the Earth.

Betelgeuse is also really close to us. It is only 427 light-years distant, which is pretty damned close. It is visible as the left shoulder in Orion if you know your stars.

So Betelgeuse is big and close, why should that bother me? Well, it's quite possible that Betelgeuse could turn into a supernova anytime within the next 1,000 years. It could happen tomorrow. While this wouldn't be a threat to our existance, it would be a really freaky thing. If Betelgeuse went supernova, it would be as bright as the night moon. It would be visible in the daytime sky. Only the sun and the moon would be brighter.

This kind of stuff freaks me out. Betelgeuse isn't a threat, but there are plenty of other cosmic things that might be, and we'd never know it until too late. I also get freaked out about just how huge the universe is. Looking at Hubble images of far-away galaxies contained within a tiny portion of our night sky scares the crap out of me.

Man I love Astronomy.

[Taem]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse
Man I love Astronomy.
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That reminds me of some rumor I heard awhile back. The rumor went something about a planet 'X' which had an ovular rotation around our sun instead of a circular one. Planet X is supposedly bigger than Jupiter and passes near Earth every 10,000 years causing earthquakes, flooding, and can even pull the Earth a distance from the sun causing global freezing but pulls it back into it's place 10,000 years later. Supposedly, this planet will pass near Earth in 2012, ironically the same time the Inca (or was that Azetc?) calendar ends, the Inca calendar counts backwards, from what, nobody knows.

I shrugged off the rumor as crap until I heard of a new planet discovered last year (I believe by NASA - too lazy to Google right now) larger than Jupiter in an ovular rotation around the sun. Interesting stuff.

Will we all die in 2012? I have the same take on this stuff as I do aliens and religion: I can't change what's going to happen, so I might as well enjoy my life everyday as if it's going to be my last and take the future as it comes. My fate is in my own hands!

[SwissMercenary]

You shouldn't worry, Dee. It may have already went supernova 426 years ago, for all we know.

As for a realistic take on it, prediction with a '1000 year acccuracy'? That just screams junk science to me.

[Munkay]

Man I love Astronomy.

Here's an astronomical mind bender:

So the light from the sun is 8 minutes old when it reaches earth, whereas the light from Betelgeuse is 427 years old. We see an 8 minute old Sun, and a 427 year old Betelgeuse. Therefore, the farther away an object is in space, the "older" it is. This shouldn't be too much of a shock.

Take this same concept and apply it to the expanding universe. Say from the moment of creation our galaxy is zooming astronomically 'east', relative to another galaxy that is zooming 'west'. If the galaxy becomes a distance longer than 14.6 billion light years away, it is impossible for us to see it, since the light from the galaxy when it reaches earth would be *older* than the universe itself. And since there have been objects we have identified as being cloes to 13 billion light years away, the "distance" is plausable.

In conclusion, as HUGE as the universe is, there is a near infinite amount of it that is impossible to ever see. Ever. Galaxies, stars, planets, possibly life, all could exist without us ever being able to know it existed.

Other astronomical sidenotes: The light that comes to earth from the sun was generated by nuclear hydrogen to helium fusion at the Sun's core over a *million* years ago. The gravity at the core of the sun is so strong, and there are so many particles densely packed that the light bounces off of them and gets sucked back in, for over a million years until it hits the radiosphere, where it zooms out of the rest of the sun and to our eyes within 8 minutes.

I'll add a few more interesting ones when I have a chance,

Cheers,

Munk

[Rhydderch Hael]

What one should really be worried about are the Jot Dtri bladecruisers lurking in powered orbits behind Jupiter, using the Jovian gravity well and magnetic bow shock to mask their presence from our sensors.

[DeeBye]

I'll add a few more interesting ones when I have a chance
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Here's another one. Up until the early 20th century, scientists' best guess was that the universe was about the size of the Milky Way. It had a nice managable number of a few hundred billion stars.

Somewhere along the line, we found out that the universe has about a hundred billion galaxies. It just got about a hundred billion times bigger, and we just got a hundred billion times more insignificant. Can you imagine what the guy who discovered that fact was thinking?

I also like to think about what would happen if aliens suddenly announced their presence to us, and prove that we are not alone in the universe. Yeah, there'd likely be a lot of chaos and disaster. I just think the alternative would be a lot worse. What if some really smart guy proved without a shadow of a doubt that we are truly alone in the universe and there is absolutely no chance of life existing anywhere but Earth?

[LemmingofGlory]

That reminds me of some rumor I heard awhile back. The rumor went something about a planet 'X' which had an ovular rotation around our sun instead of a circular one. Planet X is supposedly bigger than Jupiter and passes near Earth every 10,000 years causing earthquakes, flooding, and can even pull the Earth a distance from the sun causing global freezing but pulls it back into it's place 10,000 years later. Supposedly, this planet will pass near Earth in 2012, ironically the same time the Inca (or was that Azetc?) calendar ends, the Inca calendar counts backwards, from what, nobody knows.

Uh, several things here...

A rotation is when something spins on its axis. Revolution is when one thing orbits another. Planets revolve around the sun; they don't rotate around it. For Earth, we count one revolution to be one year and one rotation to be one day.

"Ovular" relates to ovaries. An orbit that is oval is said to be elliptical. In general, orbits are elliptical. Kepler (correctly) suggested this several hundred years ago, and Newton's calculus and physics backed him up on this. The rumor you heard was invented by someone with medieval notions of basic celestial mechanics.

-Lemmy

[Taem]

Uh, several things here...

A rotation is when something spins on its axis. Revolution is when one thing orbits another. Planets revolve around the sun; they don't rotate around it. For Earth, we count one revolution to be one year and one rotation to be one day.

"Ovular" relates to ovaries. An orbit that is oval is said to be elliptical. In general, orbits are elliptical. Kepler (correctly) suggested this several hundred years ago, and Newton's calculus and physics backed him up on this. The rumor you heard was invented by someone with medieval notions of basic celestial mechanics.

-Lemmy
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Shows how much I paid attention to the initial "planet 'X'" article I guess. I take most everything I hear with a grain of salt; it's like they say, "the proof is in the pudding."

[TheDragoon]

The funny thing is that that star could ALREADY be a supernova, but we just don't know that it is. Since it takes light 427 years to get here, the light that would brighten the daytime sky might already be on its way here... and we don't even know it yet! :)

[Grayloch]

...we just got a hundred billion times more insignificant.  Can you imagine what the guy who discovered that fact was thinking?
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He was probably trying to annoy his wife. :P

(A cookie for the person who can pinpoint the reference.)

-G.

[Zippyy]

This kind of stuff freaks me out.  Betelgeuse isn't a threat, but there are plenty of other cosmic things that might be, and we'd never know it until too late.
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Betelgeuse may not be a threat, but we can't ignore the swarms of Africanized Killer Comets. These comets are larger than normal comets, and have powerful wings. They fly faster than a speeding bullet (60 in a 35!) and are on a path from Sigma 9-5-7 that will bring them to the west coast of Earth in two years.

Global disaster stories grab people's attention. It really can be scary, but I comfort myself with statistics.

The Dinopeople were wiped out 65 million years ago, most likely by a meteorite. As far as I know, that wasn't even a global disaster since the Dinopeople never spread to another continent (had Pangaea even broken up yet?). I'm clearly working with vague memories and could be wrong about anything!

Anyhow, that seems to give us either 65M or 4.7B years with no global disaster. What are the odds of it happening in our measly 0-100~ year lifespans? I think it's quite likely that by the time a global disaster rolls around, technology will have advanced to the point that we are either extinct or capable of predicting and averting it.

I guess this doesn't have anything to do with your post, Dee. My thought path took me to a very strange place.

This post starring Sylvester Stallone as Ramble.

[Occhidiangela]

Man I love Astronomy.
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I'd show you the moon, but the goats.ex site has been taken down. :P

Occhi

[DeeBye]

I'd show you the moon, but the goats.ex site has been taken down.  :P

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It was goatse.cx

[yangman]

It was goatse.cx
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Amazingly enough, that little piece of internet history has managed to survive under a new TLD, and a North American one at that.

If you're absolutely curious, it's not hard to find---ain't that many TLDs that belong to this little corner of the globe.

[aaa]

What one should really be worried about are the Jot Dtri bladecruisers lurking in powered orbits behind Jupiter, using the Jovian gravity well and magnetic bow shock to mask their presence from our sensors.
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That's why we have Superman around to protect us.

Duh.

[Rhydderch Hael]

That's why we have Superman around to protect us.

Duh.
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Superman is not real.

Condorman is, but only because he has CIA funding for all his stuff.

[Doc]

Ok, we have all kinds of Goatsey stuff going on in here, and no red flags.

I mention raisins and cocktail weenies... Red flag.

Stuff like this keeps me awake at night.

[DeeBye]

Ok, we have all kinds of Goatsey stuff going on in here, and no red flags.

I mention raisins and cocktail weenies... Red flag.

Stuff like this keeps me awake at night.
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You might want to drop it.

[Doc]

You might want to drop it.
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You are probably right. But it irked me.

Ok, I am done.

[Klaus]

He was probably trying to annoy his wife. :P

(A cookie for the person who can pinpoint the reference.)

-G.
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Hitchhickers Guide to the Galaxy, and the "Total Perspective Vortex", if I'm not mistaken. Extrapolating the whole of the universe from a piece of Fairy Cake. :)