[princekolt]

> When the brightness of the star Betelgeuse dropped dramatically a few months ago, some observers suspected an impending supernova—a stellar explosion that could also cause damage on Earth.

Why do people keep fretting about Betelgeuse?? No, it's extremely unlikely it will harm earth when it goes nova: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.3143v2.pdf

[marcosdumay]

But it will look amazing.

> When this supernova explodes it will be closer than any known supernova observed to date, and about 19 times closer than Kepler’s supernova. Assuming it explodes as an average Type II super-nova, the optical luminosity will be approximately -12.4, becoming brighter than the full moon.

[TacticalTable]

Do we have any idea how long that light would last, and how long it would take to get to full brightness?

[jandrese]

Typically 3-5 months I think. It's not like it just turns on and off either, it flares up then slowly fades over time.

[sillyquiet]

Heh remember the panic about CERN creating mini black holes?

Science reporting is so very bad.

[taneq]

I'm not saying the LHC did create a mini black hole and suck the Earth into a parallel pocket universe on a dark dystopian timeline, but... gestures vaguely at everything

[Loughla]

I mean, that's a good philosophical premise for a book, I think.

Would we know if we were sucked into an alternate timeline via that kind of science? Would it matter to us? Could we change it?

I'm sure there's a YA novel in there somewhere.

[dylan604]

Every single SciFi show uses a shimmering effect when that happens, and I never saw that effect. So, it either happened when I was sleeping or otherwise wasn't looking, or it didn't happen. Or maybe it happened the night I took all of those mushrooms. Never can tell if I'm seeing something or just seeing something.

[taneq]

I'm pretty sure going through a micro black hole involves everything being spaghettified and... waaait a minute, now that you mention it I've been eating a LOT of spaghetti these last few months.

[rthomas6]

In the good timeline, KitKat had a dash in its name, Fruit of the Loom had a cornucopia in its logo, Pikachu had black on the end of its tail, C3PO didn't have a silver leg, and you could go up in the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

[rob74]

And since then we are all trapped in... the Twilight Zone! (cue spooky music)

[karatinversion]

And don’t even get me started on Project Z!

[beervirus]

It ain't just science reporting.

> Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

> In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. – Michael Crichton (1942-2008)

https://www.epsilontheory.com/gell-mann-amnesia/

[reso]

Actually, I remember reading at the time that the "We promise it won't create black-holes" narrative came from the PR department of the lab itself to draw attention to their work. It was very successful.

[dredmorbius]

1. Sensationalism sells advertising. Don't overlook media dynamics.

2. Reasonably solid understanding and low risk notwithstanding (Beteleuse, at 300 light years, is well outside the 50 l.y. danger zone), some people will harbour some uncertainty, warranted or not.

3. It'll still be the biggest pop in the neighbourhood for a while.

[rob74]

Another quote from later in the article:

> a very close supernova could inflict massive harm to life on Earth

...but they fail to mention how close this "very close" is. I assume 700 light years (Betelgeuse) is a little bit far away to qualify? As a total amateur in astronomy/astrophysics, I would assume that if there were any "very close" stars that are massive enough to go supernova, they would already be known?!

[speakeron]

50 light years is the generally accepted distance that would cause problems. There are no candidates this close that could cause a type II supernova (this is when a massive old star, like Betelgeuse, collapses), but there could be potential type I supernovae lurking closer. These are binary pairs of a white dwarf and another star where the white dwarf is accreting mass from the companion and reaches a limit (the Chandrasekhar mass) where runaway nuclear fusion spontaneously occurs.

[vorticalbox]

Side question do we know why it dipped in brightness?

[macintux]

Mass ejection.

Updating with link: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-hubble-betelgeuse-mysterious-d...

[SamBam]

Was the "could also cause damage on Earth" theory a widespread worry? I never heard that in any of the reporting of the issue.

My "worry" was based only on losing one of the nicest stars in the Heavens, although a certain excitement of the idea at the same time.