Science & Technology

Rant

Second Sun May Appear in Sky by 2012!

Posted 16 months ago|4 comments|1,382 views
Two Suns Better than One?
Written by
markbyrn
 Moderator
According to an article in the 23 Jan edition of the UK Telegraph,

"The Earth could find itself with a 'second sun' for a period of weeks later this year when one of the night sky's most luminous stars explodes, scientists have claimed."

That quote alone was a definite eye-brow raiser and than I read,

"Betelgeuse, which is part of the Orion constellation 640 light years away from Earth, is a red supergiant, meaning that it is nearing the end of its life and is due to explode. When it does do, it will burn so brightly that the earth will appear to have two suns in the sky"

After reading that, my heart started palpitating as I began contemplating the coincidental confluence of this major astronomical event and the 2012 end of world predictions based on the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar on Dec 21, 2012. As my breathing started to labor, I continued to read the article:

"Brad Carter, senior lecturer of physics at the University of southern Queensland in Australia, said the explosion could take place before the end of the year – or indeed at any point over the next million years."

Woah Bessie Woah! By the end of this year or NLT 1,002,010 AD? That is some serious non-precision and where is the facepalm to smear on this newspaper? Read more at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space...


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COMMENTS
Stear
Stear
Cuddebackville, NY
16 months ago: Say it 3 times and it will happen... this story will only get better with time.

http://news.discovery.com/space/dont-pan...
Out Of The Box
Out Of The Box
 Moderator
16 months ago: But it would have had to have already exploded 639 years ago, right? So if it explodes next year, we still have 640 years left before we can see it explode.
markbyrn
markbyrn
 Moderator
16 months ago: yes, another article I found noted that, "If so, the star, which is 600 light-years away, will already have exploded." I suppose it's reference to our time-frame as the astronomers are making their prediction on the evidence of 640 year old snapshots. We gotta get that warp drive thing going so we can check out what's going on right now.
15 months ago: That's crazy. It would look pretty cool though. Then Al Gore would REALLY be talking about global warming!

Hm. I don't know. With the way the world is going, I wouldn't be surprised if we end soon by some means. It feels like the whole world is falling in on itself sometimes.

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