What fascinates me about these things is, if it is “about” to go supernova, then it already has, hundreds of years ago. We just haven’t seen it yet.
It would be crazy cool to see it go supernova, safe from most of the harmful effects and bright enough to light the way at night.
If it’s bright enough to light the way at night, isn’t it also close enough to cause significant harm?
no, I think it would only be potentially harmful if its poles were pointed directly at us and we were blasted with gamma ray bursts
It is exciting that in this case “soon” could mean tens of years instead of hundreds of thousands.
This would be amazing to see in my lifetime. I have a 10 inch telescope I use to mostly look at the planets, but this would be big/bright enough to see clearly with it
My understanding is that that would be bright enough to cast shadows at night and last months.
From what I read it would be as bright/slightly brighter than a full moon for a few months. I would have to use my moon filter to not be blinded by looking in the telescope
That’s wild, would love to be around to see it.
Hmm that’s neat, from the article “We conclude that Betelgeuse is in the late stage of core carbon burning, and a good candidate for the next Galactic supernova,”
That would be wild to witness a supernova.
