What happens if betelgeuse explodes

Garbage Day. You tie it all up into What would their What if there are other universes, just like ours? With an infinite number of Earths? With uncountable versions of you? Could a black hole devour us all one day? There are millions of them out there just waiting. And if we happened to make a black hole accidentally, well, you better This rogue star has been traveling the Universe. Eight planets, hundreds of moons, hundreds of thousands of asteroids, and billions of comets orbiting our Sun make up our Solar System.

And not once has a single black Related videos. What If Jupiter and Saturn Collided? You may also like. Connect with. I allow to create an account. When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings.

We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account. Disagree Agree. Adding a second object as bright as the Moon could be disruptive. The bright light would overwhelm their instruments. And if Betelgeuse does defy the odds and blow up in our lifetimes, astronomers say there will be ample warning.

Instruments on Earth would start detecting neutrinos or gravitational waves generated by the explosion as much as a day in advance. Some astronomers even suspect that several different dimming mechanisms are playing out at once. As their nuclear fuel runs out near the ends of their lives, red supergiant stars start to bloat and form growing envelopes of gas and dust.

Red supergiant stars also have enormous convective cells on their surfaces — like much larger versions of those on our Sun — where turbulence makes hot material rise from inside the star. Once it reaches the surface, part of that material erupts violently into space like a giant, radioactive belch, which can temporarily change its brightness. Whatever the root cause, the strange behavior should ultimately offer new insights into the dying days of red supergiant stars.

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UTC Offset:. Picture of the Day Image Galleries. The resulting pattern could then be compared against theoretical models of the dynamics of supernovae. And it could shed light on the still-unknown masses of neutrinos or reveal new ways that neutrinos interact with each other.

Of course, astronomers who hope for Betelgeuse to go supernova are also interested in the light generated by the star explosion. Since neutrinos pass through a supernova unimpeded, while particles of light are continually absorbed and reemitted until reaching the surface, the burst of neutrinos arrives at Earth hours before the light does — hence the early warning.

SNEWS has never sent out an alert. Although hundreds of supernovae are observed each year, the most recent one close enough to Earth for its neutrinos to be detected occurred in , more than a decade before SNEWS came online. Based on other observations, astronomers expect a supernova to occur in our galaxy several times per century on average. Continuing observations of Betelgeuse suggest that its recent dimming was a sign of its natural variability, not an impending supernova.

Current estimates give the star up to , years to live. Fermilab is supported by the Office of Science of the U.