Science and Exploration

[dreadgeek]

Saw this at Huffington Post and thought I would get a jump on it.

Earth could be getting a second sun, at least temporarily.

Dr. Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland, outlined the scenario to news.com.au. Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's brightest stars, is losing mass, indicating it is collapsing. It could run out of fuel and go super-nova at any time.

When that happens, for at least a few weeks, we'd see a second sun, Carter says. There may also be no night during that timeframe.

The Star Wars-esque scenario could happen by 2012, Carter says... or it could take longer. The explosion could also cause a neutron star or result in the formation of a black hole 1300 light years from Earth, reports news.com.au.

But doomsday sayers should be careful about speculation on this one. If the star does go super-nova, Earth will be showered with harmless particles, according to Carter. "They will flood through the Earth and bizarrely enough, even though the supernova we see visually will light up the night sky, 99 per cent of the energy in the supernova is released in these particles that will come through our bodies and through the Earth with absolutely no harm whatsoever," he told news.com.au.

In fact, a neutrino shower could be beneficial to Earth. According to Carter this "star stuff" makes up the universe. "It literally makes things like gold, silver - all the heavy elements - even things like uranium....a star like Betelgeuse is instantly forming for us all sorts of heavy elements and atoms that our own Earth and our own bodies have from long past supernovi," said Carter.

So firstly, if anyone tries to tell you that this has something to do with the Mayan prophecies--it doesn't. IF this star has exploded, it did so 1300 years ago (that's what it means to say that something is 1300 light years away, when you look at some star, you are not seeing it as it is this moment. You are seeing it as it was.). Secondly, even IF it forms a black hole (and that would be the coolest thing EVER if it did) it will have no effect on us. We are altogether too far away for a stellar-mass black hole to capture us (to give you an example for contrast there is a supermassive black hole (several BILLION stellar masses!) at the center of our galaxy. While our solar system orbits that black hole, we are not being drawn into it. So a black hole created from a mere star (even one as massive as Betelgeuse) is no threat to us if it is 1300 l.y. away.

Lastly, don't worry about neutrinos passing through you. Every second of every day, billions of neutrinos pass through the Earth. These particles are so tiny that in order to detect them special detectors have to be built--at the base of abandoned mines, in pools of water.

Cheers
Aj