Two Suns? Twin Stars Could Be Visible From Earth By 2012

[DearAbby]

Earth could be getting a second sun, at least temporarily.

Dr. Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland, outlined the scenario to news.com.au. 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, Carter says. There may also be no night during that timeframe.

The Star Wars-esque scenario could happen by 2012, Carter says... 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.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/two-suns-twin-stars_n_811864.html

[ZombieHorde]

1. Fingers crossed. nt

[valerief]

2. Oh, the fundies'll go beserk! nt

[Xenotime]

54. Ha!

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

3. Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!

Sorry, didn't want to, had to! <smile>

[Kalyke]

46. I smiled, too, but Betelgeuse is not the twin star.

I smiled because even the naked eye can see it going Nova. When its light will reach Earth is beyond my technical reality. However, I have a great deck, a nice eye and a decent telescope. It's more and more red every winter (which is when you can see it best in North America)..

[DearAbby]

4. that is so cooooooool

I want so much to observe this! What an Auspicious time we are living!

[hedgehog]

14. Well, it'd make up for the poor showing of Halley's Comet!

[DearAbby]

20. Oh My

I was going to write something about Teabaggers, castrations, koolaid nikes and heavensgate....buuuuuut thought better of it.





nevermind

[RegieRocker]

5. If there is no night during that time wouldn't one have to be

on the opposite side of the earth? If that was the case then you wouldn't see both at the same time.

[Harry Monroe]

21. It would depend if Betelguese (and the constellation Orion) is up above the horizon during

the time of year this occurs. You'll probably be able to see it in daytime if it is above the horizon. Stars are also out during the day, but due to our own star's light, we cannot see them. Sometimes, though, if you know where to look, you can see Venus with binoculars if it is above the horizon during daylight hours.

[TheMadMonk]

23. Depends on which end of the year it happens at.

Midyear, it's double sunrises/sets. New Year, even the uncool people will be wearing shades at midnight.

[slackmaster]

6. That could block my view of the Pleiades!

[derby378]

Bring it on!

Farewell, Betelgeuse - and hello, Tatooine!

[neverforget]

7. Just imagine the nebula that will result from that explosion!

That will be awesome!

[DJ13]

8. "I can see Betelgeuse from my back porch!"

-Sarah Palin

[jimlup]

9. I don't know but how serious is the radiation flux if Betelgeuse blows?

This may not be a trivial concern. I don't know what the answer is but I know enough about supernovi to be concerned.

[jimlup]

10. Answered my question with a quick search... shouldn't be an issue

Betelgeuse is 600 light years away - that is too far to have much effect on the Earth.
But it would be quite a beautiful sight in our skies, outshining the full moon and it would likely be visible in the daytime (as Tycho's Supernova in 1604 was).

Since Betelgeuse's rotational axis is not pointed towards Earth, the supernova isn't likely to send a gamma ray burst in our direction. Astronomers estimate the supernova could brighten to an apparent magnitude of −12 over a couple of weeks, remain that bright for a few months, and then rapidly dim.
The debris will expand outwards, creating a supernova remnant that will continue to expand and dim for a long time.
At the distance of 600 light years, you will need a telescope to see the SNR.

* 2 months ago

[derby378]

11. From 1,300 light-years away, I wouldn't worry about it

That's 1,300 light-years of interstellar dust, gas, virtual particles, and the occasional TIE fighter for all that radiation to cut through before it gets to Earth - which is already bombarded by radiation from our own beloved Sol as it is.

[jberryhill]

33. Ummm.... It could have gone nova 1300 years ago

[derby378]

35. Isn't that the point?

Also, it's supernova when a star explodes. A nova is a completely separate astronomical phenomenon.

[theophilus]

18. Well, the Wiki seems to say they don't know how far away it is.

Estimates from 180 lys to over a thousand. NOW the estimate is 640. I'm not so sure they know and that is troublesome. Less than 200 and we might have some major problems. 2012? Yeah.

[bikebloke]

59. Anyone have a tape measure?

;)

[whoneedstickets]

25. Stock up on your SPF 9000!

zinc oxide anyone?

[RagAss]

12. I'm all for it !

[arcane1]

13. PLEASE happen in my lifetime!!!!!111

How cool would that be???

[Odin2005]

15. Oh PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! O wanna see a supernova!!!

:bounce:

[neverforget]

29. I do too! I was really disappointed that I couldn't see Supernova 1987a

because it was in the Southern Hemisphere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A

[jayfish]

65. The Southern Hemisphere has most of the good stuff.

I'd like to go one of these years strictly for astronomy.

[neverforget]

67. I'd love to do that someday.That would be really cool!

[Canuckistanian]

16. ... or it could take longer. Like maybe 10,000 years.

Look, we don't know enough about supernova stars right now to predict with such accuracy that it will happen within a year.

I don't even think we've had a supernova in the Milky Way (our galaxy) since 1604 (SN1604, studied by Kepler).

It WOULD DEFINITELY be a grand show in the sky if it were to happen, but don't count on it happening on this ONE astronomer's schedule.

[derby378]

17. Depends on how quickly Betelgeuse is losing mass

If it has already formed an iron core, hold on to your butts - we're in for a show.

[hfojvt]

43. it should not be losing mass at all

it is probably losing volume. There's no way they can measure its mass from here unless they can see an object which is orbiting it. So I don't know why the physicist said 'losing mass'.

Then again, it is not like I have kept up with astrophysics. They probably have a theory where the mass disappears into a singularity.

[jayfish]

66. For your reading pleasure:

http://news.discovery.com/space/exploding-boiling-star.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1203486/Sharpest-images-Betelgeuse-reveal-explosive-red-supergiant-loses-mass.html

Enjoy!

[tekisui]

19. I really hope to see this.

[Urban Prairie]

22. No night would mean that the supernova would appear on the opposite side of the Earth

most of the time, and there would not be two "suns" in the sky at the same time, or for very long.

[hootinholler]

38. Depends

If the star is more polar oriented, you could have 2 suns in the daytime and 1 at night and many combinations. It's also affected by time of year because of the earth's axis tilt.

I'm wondering if you could get sunburned by it?


-Hoot

[demwing]

24. Thanks Alot, Universe! Ruin my favorite constellation...

Farewell, Orion!

[Liberal Veteran]

28. Look on the bright side, no more yellow-orange star clashing with his pretty blue clothes.

[Veruca Salt]

70. Just think of it as a flesh wound.

;)

[formercia]

26. Don't stare at it too long....

[whoneedstickets]

27. It may have already happend! At any time in the last 1300 years

we just don't know about it until the light arrives.

[jakeXT]

30. Neutrinos, 2012? Where is John Cusack?

But doomsday sayers should be careful about speculation on this one. If the star does go super-nova, Earth will be showered with harmless particles, according to Carter. "They will flood through the Earth and bizarrely enough, even though the supernova we see visually will light up the night sky, 99 per cent of the energy in the supernova is released in these particles that will come through our bodies and through the Earth with absolutely no harm whatsoever," he told news.com.au.

In fact, a neutrino shower could be beneficial to Earth. According to Carter this "star stuff" makes up the universe. "It literally makes things like gold, silver - all the heavy elements - even things like uranium....a star like Betelgeuse is instantly forming for us all sorts of heavy elements and atoms that our own Earth and our own bodies have from long past supernovi," said Carter.

[lfairban]

55. Wow! Gold and silver from the sky!

Sorta like pennies from heaven. (Now I am dating myself, if pennies did fall from heaven, no one would pick them up)

But seriously folks, I have two questions:

If the neutrinos arrive with the visual evidence, that means they are traveling at the speed of light, no? At a range of 1000 ly, traveling 99% of the speed of light, they would lag by about 10 years.

Can neutrinos cause the upshift in atomic number? Where are they getting the protons?

[IDemo]

31. When red super-giants go bad

If it were at the center of our Solar System, its surface would extend past the asteroid belt possibly to the orbit of Jupiter and beyond, wholly engulfing Mercury, Venus, the Earth and Mars.

--If we compare such star matter to the density of ordinary air at sea level, the ratio is roughly 1.286 × 10−5, a density so ethereal, one would have to soar above the noctilucent clouds in the Earth's mesosphere to experience it. Such star matter is so tenuous, in fact, that Betelgeuse has often been called a "red-hot vacuum".

Yes, I Wikied it, but I also took astronomy in high school and one semester of college. :)

[cbdo2007]

32. Oh great, another person thinking a "once in a million years" event is going to happen soon.

Relax people, it could happen in another 500 years. It could be another 50,000 years. Or it could have already happened 500 years ago. The chances we're going to witness this event is very, very, very small.

[jayfish]

62. I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Supernovae are a rather common occurrence in the Universe. They occur at a rate of about 3 per 100 years, per galaxy. The Milky Way is in an unexplained lull at the moment with the most recent events taking place about 140 and 330 years ago.

[alfredo]

34. Betelgeuse= What you get when you step on a beetle.

[IDemo]

36. Poorly written

"The second biggest star in the universe" (OK, they corrected this.)

"gravitation collapse" - Did you mean gravitational collapse?

nuetrinos - neutrinos

[old mark]

37. The Rapture! All those assholes will be leaving!

Party time for me!


mark

[RichGirl]

39. Note to self...

Buy stock in sun screen.

[pokerfan]

40. Either next year or a million years from now

or somewhere in between. From the linked article:

The bad news is, it could also happen in a million years. But who's counting?

In other words, don't hold your breath.

[Brother Buzz]

41. I need to pencil in this event on my Mayan calendar

Oh, wait a minute.

[ashling]

42. Isn't this old news?

I mean, it must've happened, some 13,000 years ago.:shrug:





































:rofl:

[backscatter712]

44. OK, this paragraph fails the laugh test...

In fact, a neutrino shower could be beneficial to Earth. According to Carter this "star stuff" makes up the universe. "It literally makes things like gold, silver - all the heavy elements - even things like uranium....a star like Betelgeuse is instantly forming for us all sorts of heavy elements and atoms that our own Earth and our own bodies have from long past supernovi," said Carter.

OK, I'm no astrophysics major, but I was under the impression that elements from gold to uranium to just about everything on the periodic table get formed in the cores of stars themselves in the nuclear reactions, then the star stuff we're all made of gets blasted out everywhere by the supernovas. Millions of years later, clouds of star stuff (also known as a nebula) gets stirred around by the gravity by passing stars, starts collecting together due to gravity in parts of nebulas known as stellar nurseries, some of the material accumulates in a mass in the center, then gravity compresses until fusion is achieved and a new star is born, while material orbiting around the star accumulates into planets and such.

Creating gold and silver here on Earth? :rofl:

[lfairban]

58. See comment #55, above

I must learn to read clear through the thread BEFORE posting.

[Hugabear]

45. What is the likelihood of a Gamma Ray burst from this?

A gamma-ray burst aimed in our direction could pretty much wipe out most life on Earth.

[backscatter712]

47. I'm no astrophysicist, but I don't consider it likely.

Gamma ray bursts are very directional - they happen when a collapsing star becomes a black hole, and as it spins, it spits out insane amounts of gammas along their axis of rotation in a narrow beam.

I'm not sure if Betelgeuse is the kind of star that would collapse into a black hole and generate a gamma-ray burst, but even if it did, the chances of the beam pointing in our direction is pretty slim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst

If Betelgeuse explodes, we get a pretty light show, look at the sky and go "Ooh!" and "Ahh!"

[jayfish]

63. Almost zero.

The poles are not aligned with Earth. WR 104 though? ...that's a different matter.

[kster]

48. Two Suns in the Sunset Pink Floyd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox2B0VLXPQs

[krispos42]

49. "... and I believe that me running for President is God's will!"

"My name is Sarah Palin, and I'm running for President!"

<Betelgeuse goes supernova>

"Um, nevermind."

[nadinbrzezinski]

50. Don't you know this is the end of the world

I read it among the seals.

:sarcasm:

[somone]

51. "There is absolutely no indication that the star will explode in the next year or so"

http://news.discovery.com/space/dont-panic-betelgeuse-wont-explode-in-2012.html

... someday, Betelgeuse will explode. That’s for certain! But it’s also way too far away to hurt us. A supernova has to be no farther than about 25 light years away to be able to fry us with light or anything else, and Betelgeuse is 25 times that distance (which means its power to hurt us is weakened by over 600x). It’s the wrong kind of star to explode as a gamma-ray burst, so I’m not worried about that either.

At that distance, it’ll get bright, about as bright as the full Moon. That’s pretty bright! It’ll hurt your eyes to look at it, but that’s about it. The original post says it may get as bright as the Sun, but that’s totally wrong. It won’t even get 1/100,000th that bright. Still bright, but it’s not going to cook us. Even if it were going to explode soon. Which it almost certainly isn’t.

But what's all this fuss about the star exploding by 2012? That's complete garbage. There is absolutely no indication that the star will explode in the next year or so. Even the most advanced telescopes and sophisticated computer models cannot predict an exploding star with that precision! ....

[Lucian]

52. I'm going to miss seeing Orion in the winter sky when that happens.

There's nothing more peaceful than looking at Orion during a winter evening, seeing the red Betelgeuse, the blue Rigel, and the pink of the Orion nebula in Orion's sword. Once Betelgeuse goes supernova, Orion won't be the same. :(

Essentially, he'll go from being a hunter to being a gatherer.

[NuclearDem]

60. I think we'd be getting a fair trade actually...

This


For something like...this. :)

[Lucian]

68. Yeah, but...

we can't see the Horsehead Nebula with the naked eye. We need a high-powered telescope. :(

But Betelgeuse could also turn into an Orion Nebula-type of nebula. Then we could see it with the unaided eye. :)

[Ian David]

53. NEWS.com.au would like to apologise for their error - as we all know, Betelgeuse is...

Addendum: NEWS.com.au would like to apologise for their error - as we all know, Betelgeuse is the second biggest star in the Orion constellation, not the universe.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/two-suns-twin-stars_n_811864.html

[Inchworm]

56. I'm getting my garden ready now!

:woohoo:

[Statistical]

57. Doesn't he mean it has already happened 1300 years ago.

The start is 1300 light years away so if tomorrow you were to see the supernova in the sky the actual event would have had to happen 1300 years ago. It just has taken the light that long to reach us.

If the supernova occured today it would be "invisble" to us for the next 1300 years.

[RT Atlanta]

61. Cool! I've seen this before somewhere....

[DireStrike]

64. It could also take a million years

It's hilarious that they went ahead and made an article out of this just cuz of the 2012 angle.

[Lucian]

69. + a million.

[Hugabear]

71. At 1300 light-years, would it really be THAT bright?

Yes, I know it would be easily visible, since the star itself is already easily visible. But bright enough to turn night into day? Not even a full moon accomplishes that.

[RedCloud]

72. What if those are really binocular lenses looking at us?