Betelgeuse

[Meanderer]

So Betelgeuse Implodes, I understand that it would be pretty big explosion?. Are there any Satellites/Planets in the area?
If so I am assuming that they are in a orbit.
How would or would that orbit be affected?.
Hope this not a stupid question, I am not Physicist or Astronomer, just have some intrigue.

George

[renormalised (Carl)]

Hi George, welcome to IIS

You've undoubtedly read that News.com report....take no notice of it, even after all the botched corrections they've made. Even if Betelgeuse were to explode now (which it probably won't), you won't see the results of the explosion for about another 625-650 years, which is around the distance the star is from us (625-650 light years). Conversely, if we saw the explosion now, that means it would've actually gone off sometime between 1361-1386.

If there were planets in orbit about the star when it went (goes) supernova, they won't be there now. The explosion would've destroyed them.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Hi George,

Welcome, in most cases there is no silly questions, if you are interested someone posted comment about the report. We wouldn't assume most people know a lot, but we do expect Journalists need to do their research before making reports.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=70856

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

And if there were any planets orbiting it they would mostly be absorbed by the star as it is in a red giant phase, unless they were very far out. If so the enormous amounts of radiation would have fried them by now anyways!

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I hope we see it go in our life time!

[renormalised (Carl)]

We'll be more likely to see Eta lose its stack than Betelgeuse...far more further along the path to big bang than the latter. Far more likely to in any case considering it's a far larger star (mass wise, luminosity etc etc).

Heavier, brighter, burns it fuel far more quickly and it's far more unstable to boot. And it could be in a very interesting phase of its life as an LBV (luminous blue variable)...from studies of similar stars in other galaxies that went bang, it appears that the stars went bang not too long after a previous outburst. Whether the last outburst at Eta has tipped it far enough, we don't know. But if she goes, it'll be more spectacular than a Betelgeuse supernova.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Originally Posted by barx1963

And if there were any planets orbiting it they would mostly be absorbed by the star as it is in a red giant phase, unless they were very far out. If so the enormous amounts of radiation would have fried them by now anyways!

I think what you will find would happen is that if the star expanded enough to engulf planets the increased drag on the planet would cause its orbit to decay and it would slowly 'fall' closer and closer to the center of the sun. Whether it would get close enough to be completely destroyed would depend on the type of planet (composition) and how close it got to the truey 'hot' spot. The extended gases on these enormous red giants aren't that hot, only a few thousand degrees. Sure they'd boil the oceans and every thing on it but to completely destroy a planet it would have to get close enough to the furnace. JMT

[ngcles]

Hi George & All,

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

I hope we see it go in our life time!

Originally Posted by renormalised

We'll be more likely to see Eta lose its stack than Betelgeuse...far more further along the path to big bang than the latter. Far more likely to in any case considering it's a far larger star (mass wise, luminosity etc etc).

Noooooooo please no I don't want either of these to go. Loosing Betelgeuse would be ultra spectacular and produce a magnitude -9 to -10 event ... But when the show's all over, Orion (the most photographed constellation) would no longer be Orion!.

If Eta Carinae, it would similarly destroy the Homunculus nebula -- one of the most interesting small nebulae in the sky. I don't want to loose that !

Yep, inasmuch as we understand the evolution of high-mass stars (our state of knowledge is not nearly as complete as it is with medium or solar-mass stars) there is some evidence that Eta Carina may be just around the corner. I read a couple of papers last year that propose that the "supernova impostor" events Eta Car underwent in the 1840s and 1890s mimic the observed behaviour of two other stars that recently blew up in other galaxies that were of the exotic "pair-production" or "pair-instability" type of supernovae. There is some evidence that supports a conclusion that Eta Carinae will end its life in this manner (as a pair-instability supernova).

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0612617

However, it might also live on for a few more hundred thousand years, and become a stripped core Wolf-Rayet star and then implode in a Type Ib or Type Ic event. We don't really know which one is more likely which means it is important that this star is watched carefully.

It seems that pair instability supernovae peak at absolute magnitude -22, whereas Type II events (core implosion of a red supergiant to a neutron star) peak (on average) at about absolute magnitude 17.5. That's a 4.5 magnitude difference and a real difference in intrinsic luminosity of about 64 times (ie the pair instability supernovae Eta Carinae may produce would likely be about 64x brighter than the event Betelgeuse is destined to go out with (tsk tsk -- never end a sentence with a preposition).

Now, Eta is 7,500 ly distant, Betelgeuse is somewhere around 650 ly. Assuming they explode at these distances, which will be the brighter in our skies?

Eta (if it goes down that route) will peak at about mag -5 while Betelgeuse will peak about mag -9.

But ... the star I've got my money on to explode next is Sher 25 in NGC 3603. There is some fairly solid evidence that this star almost certainly has <20,000 years to go. It is 20,000 ly away. There is a good chance the blue touch-paper has already been lit.


Best,

Les D

[Meanderer]

Thank You, to all for replies and comments, I have a better perspective for the word Astronomical.

WOW George

[Shano592 (Shane)]

I read somewhere that Eta Carinae is not a single star, but is in fact 2 super- or hyper-giants revolving around each other ... one feeding the other.

That is why there is so much activity inside there.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Shano592

I read somewhere that Eta Carinae is not a single star, but is in fact 2 super- or hyper-giants revolving around each other ... one feeding the other.

That is why there is so much activity inside there.

That's still open to debate and speculation. It all depends on who you talk to.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

If either goes please let me have my camera pointed at it and in the middle of an exposure

[gpb (Chris)]

Another report on Betelguese

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/spa...nd-sun-in-2012