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Supernova any day now; Betelgeuse is no longer round

tenbyfifty

By tenbyfifty
in The Astro Lounge

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brianb

brianb

Posted
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Lack of symmetry is a good reason for supposing that a SN explosion is not imminent ... in any case, the complex light curves of all SRc variables (red supergiants like Betelgeuse) suggest that radial assymetry is the normal state of such stars; radially symmetric stars would be constrained to pulsating in modes giving a smooth regular light curve, like Cepheids or RR Lyrae variables.

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George

George

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Ive got my DSLR battery's charged ready and a holiday form ready at work.......but we might have a 540+ year wait :D

The gamma ray detection guys will be the first to know, I believe Betelgeuse is pole on to us how would this effect any energy release?

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EA2007

EA2007

Posted
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Ive got my DSLR battery's charged ready and a holiday form ready at work.......but we might have a 540+ year wait :D

The gamma ray detection guys will be the first to know, I believe Betelgeuse is pole on to us how would this effect any energy release?

There are two types of Gamma ray bursts, long and short (hard and soft), depending on the orientation of the star and the burst then levels of gamma ray may be higher. I wrote an essay on it somewhere..........

see attached

Gamma Ray Bursts Essay.doc

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brianb

brianb

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The gamma ray detection guys will be the first to know,

Sorry but that's not right. The first detectable event will be a massive pulst of neutrinos - these travel just slower than light but have approx. one day's start on the light which needs to get through the thick outer blanket of the star which is not involved in the SN explosion. Even at the distance of the Magellanic Clouds, the neutrino pulse arrived before the optical event.

Supernovae are not a major source of gamma rays, not even at the rotational pole. Gamma ray bursts are much more energetic events, almost certainly involving black hole mergers. The danger from being near the rotational pole of a nearby SN is the jet of fast ejected material which eventually arrives - many years after the actual event.

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barkis

barkis

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Betelgeuse going bang is not of any concern to me, as spectacular as it might be. What I will regret, is the devastating change to the Orion Asterism itself. It won't be the same. So lopsided. I hope it hasn't blown yet, or if it has, let it be between yesterday, and 390 years ago, then I won't see it.

Ron.

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Dandobi

Dandobi

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Think you're right Jove, it'll go for us to see in June on a cloudy day. Talking of which, is the sun still up there? Not seen it for days! The night sky is so drab with no stars. :D

Marc

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tinvek

tinvek

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i'd be glad of some cloud, spent last 2 days digging out the old fish pond for the new bigger version (and please no jokes about olympic specifications, had them all already) bright sun shine both days, bright red head as a result :D.

still once the ponds done, the space the fish's tempory home (paddling pool ) is in will be free and then next holiday i can make a start on a home for my scopes, and to make myself do it i've told myself no star gazing until it's done, supernova being an obvious exception :D

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