Betelgeuse a good candidate for going supernova in the next century

[EdzUp]

You see this is the trouble when people try to pick up on things. A star can "go nova" many times (there are recurrent nova stars), Betelgeuse has possibly had nova events (producing the "shells" that surround it) - the term nova refers to the temporary brightening of a star, brightening rapidly and then slowly reducing back in luminosity.

Not enough is known to establish any correlation between stellar changes and the onset of a supernova event, although in the case of supergiants (like Betelgeuse) the expected tell-tale would be when it starts fusing iron (well, iron fusion can't produce energy - look up "Alpha process" to understand), hence the current speculation about the star's pulsing perhaps indicating that this is the situation.

I am only an amateur astronomer, not an astrophysicist so I can only pass on what I think these people are hanging their hats on.

As I said earlier its all speculation i dont attain to be a astrophysicist or professional astronomer one thing i do know is a lot of yesterdays science has been proven wrong by todays discoveries which is why i will say its gone nova when we all can see it and understand. We are way to young a race to pertain to know everything about the universe around us.

I was always told the star going supernova is the end game for that star it explodes in a star system destroying cataclysm which has been known to affect even nearby star systems.

 

[Northpin]

You see this is the trouble when people try to pick up on things. A star can "go nova" many times (there are recurrent nova stars), Betelgeuse has possibly had nova events (producing the "shells" that surround it) - the term nova refers to the temporary brightening of a star, brightening rapidly and then slowly reducing back in luminosity.

Not enough is known to establish any correlation between stellar changes and the onset of a supernova event, although in the case of supergiants (like Betelgeuse) the expected tell-tale would be when it starts fusing iron (well, iron fusion can't produce energy - look up "Alpha process" to understand), hence the current speculation about the star's pulsing perhaps indicating that this is the situation.

I am only an amateur astronomer, not an astrophysicist so I can only pass on what I think these people are hanging their hats on.

As I said earlier its all speculation i dont attain to be a astrophysicist or professional astronomer one thing i do know is a lot of yesterdays science has been proven wrong by todays discoveries which is why i will say its gone nova when we all can see it and understand. We are way to young a race to pertain to know everything about the universe around us.

I was always told the star going supernova is the end game for that star it explodes in a star system destroying cataclysm which has been known to affect even nearby star systems.

i'm not an astrophysicist either, but the article i linked is debating the idea mentioned in OP that Betelgeuse is already well into the Carbon fusion phase (which phase apparently doesnt last very long) and place the results obtained by the "It's going Kaboom" article (which article was not yet peer reviewed) on "questionable observational constraints"

So, we dont know yet, but it may be that B is still not into C phase.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

As I said earlier its all speculation i dont attain to be a astrophysicist or professional astronomer one thing i do know is a lot of yesterdays science has been proven wrong by todays discoveries which is why i will say its gone nova when we all can see it and understand. We are way to young a race to pertain to know everything about the universe around us.

I was always told the star going supernova is the end game for that star it explodes in a star system destroying cataclysm which has been known to affect even nearby star systems.

You seem still to conflate nova and supernova events.

I explained this but your are so determined to push your misapprehension that you failed to take it in.

I suggest you research about stellar evolution, nova events (especially recurring nova stars) and type II supernovae (which is what Betelgeuse will experience eventually).

I could just link some articles for you but I think that the process of searching yourself might help you grasp the ideas.

 

[EdzUp]

i'm not an astrophysicist either, but the article i linked is debating the idea mentioned in OP that Betelgeuse is already well into the Carbon fusion phase (which phase apparently doesnt last very long) and place the results obtained by the "It's going Kaboom" article (which article was not yet peer reviewed) on "questionable observational constraints"

So, we dont know yet, but it may be that B is still not into C phase.

Its an interesting topic for discussion and one that does have a bearing on ED

 

[EdzUp]

You seem still to conflate nova and supernova events.

I explained this but your are so determined to push your misapprehension that you failed to take it in.

I suggest you research about stellar evolution, nova events (especially recurring nova stars) and type II supernovae (which is what Betelgeuse will experience eventually).

I could just link some articles for you but I think that the process of serching yourself might help you grasp the ideas.

Novae and Supernovae | StarDate Online

A nova is an explosion from the surface of a white-dwarf star in a binary star system. A nova occurs when the white dwarf, which is the dense core of a once-normal star, “steals” gas from its nearby companion star. When enough gas builts up on the surface of the white dwarf it triggers an...

stardate.org

There seems to be loads of conflicting definition and information about this issue, whilst i dont pertain to know everything about space the amount useless information is mind boggling. To keep topic on track i think we will just have to keep our own ideas and wait and see what happens with Betelgeuse itself.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

i'm not an astrophysicist either, but the article i linked is debating the idea mentioned in OP that Betelgeuse is already well into the Carbon fusion phase (which phase apparently doesnt last very long) and place the results obtained by the "It's going Kaboom" article (which article was not yet peer reviewed) on "questionable observational constraints"

So, we dont know yet, but it may be that B is still not into C phase.

Yes, quite correct, we don't know for sure that Betelgeuse is even in a Carbon stage.

 

[Fnord Velkor]

There seems to be loads of conflicting definition and information about this issue, whilst i dont pertain to know everything about space the amount useless information is mind boggling. To keep topic on track i think we will just have to keep our own ideas and wait and see what happens with Betelgeuse itself.

OK I'm bailing on this now.

 

[Morbad]

As I said earlier its all speculation

Observations viewed through the lens of well proven theory are hardly 'all speculation'.

We are way to young a race to pertain to know everything about the universe around us.

Fortunately, no one is doing that, but conflating any uncertanty with complete ignorance is just as great a folly.

 

[CMDR Charybdis]

The point for me is that there is a model of the lifetime of a star that is doing what science is supposed to do: making a testable prediction based on observations and a theoretical model.

That it might be an incomplete model is to be expected (we don't exactly get many supernova events to test these out, especially in our galactic neighbourhood). When Betelgeuse does go pop then we will hopefully get a much needed capture of data that will help improve our understanding.

 

[EdzUp]

Observations viewed through the lens of well proven theory are hardly 'all speculation'.



Fortunately, no one is doing that, but conflating any uncertanty with complete ignorance is just as great a folly.

Observation through a lens are not always accurate but yes we do agree that ignorance is folly. We will get a wealth of new data once it does go supernova when that is is very much speculation as the timeframe is open to interpretation depending on who you talk to some say its imminent other ten thousand years to millions.

It is always interesting to see where science moves forwards with new discoveries and sometimes they do debunk some old theories, whilst I do keep a keen eye on new stuff and am an avid reader of several science pages.