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| Betelgeuse, the red supergiant at the top of the constellation of Orion Photograph credited to www.nightsky.ie |
I’ve been contacted by numerous people about a star that may explode within the next 2 years. The star is Betelgeuse – located in the constellation Orion. Go out this week about 8:00 PM – face SSE, look up around 60 degrees (remember 90 degrees is straight overhead) and you should see the above constellation.
Betelgeuse is a red super giant, one of the largest and most luminous stars known. It will go supernova (explode) sometime – the question is when.
The Huffington Post - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/20/two-suns-twin-stars_n_811864.html wrote a piece about Betelgeuse – suggesting the supernova will occur in 2012.
Highly unlikely
It also claims the supernova will be so bright that it would be like a second sun.
Wrong
I’m a fan of Phil Plait – creator of Bad Astronomy. If you want to read the REAL SCIENCE behind this plus great illustrations, check out Phil’s blog - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/01/21/betelgeuse-and-2012/
Now you can talk intelligently if somebody brings this up!
This is my only blog this week.
Next blog – next week.
We actually saw this on the local TV channel. They made it sound like a really big deal, linking it to the Mayan and Incan calendars, and to some prediction that Nostradamus made, and connecting it to the prophecy that the world would end on 12/12/12. At least now we know that the end of the world probably won't be caused by the explosion of this star. Whew!
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