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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.
