We've known for some time now that Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, and we have also known that the red supergiant phase of a star's life only lasts roughly one million years, tops. Being that Betelgeuse is a few million years old, we can deduce that it may be well into it's red supergiant phase, and given that it is 600 light-years away, it is possible that the star has already gone super-nova (type II) and the resulting light from the blast has not yet reached us. Now I understand that the article is saying the star appears to be shrinking, however the star (like any red supergiant) has a history of expanding and contracting. Per the article, it could be any number of things. I really don't think it is anything to get worked up about. Not that sensationalism isn't fun.
...it is possible that the star has already gone super-nova (type II) and the resulting light from the blast has not yet reached us.
No, no, no. There is no absolute frame of reference for time, so you cannot say that something has "already" happened elsewhere if we are not in the event's light cone [wikipedia.org].
Why not? Sure, there's no absolute frame, but extrapolating our local frame out to distant locations doesn't hurt anyone. It's not really useful to do so (much more useful to discuss now as 'light that has reached us now' but there's no reason to say something hasn't already happened just because its light hasn't reached us yet.
Light, like anything else, must travel through space, and it can only go so fast. That said, at this very instant, that is the state of the universe as it is now, Betelgeuse may be no more and we humans may be unaware of that simply because the light depicting the star's demise has not reached us yet and is still journeying through space. Light moves so fast that here on earth we consider things happening at the instant we see them, but that simply isn't true. There is ALWAYS an infinitesimal amount of t
Dreams are free, but you get soaked on the connect time.
This isn't exactly news. (Score:5, Interesting)
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...it is possible that the star has already gone super-nova (type II) and the resulting light from the blast has not yet reached us.
No, no, no. There is no absolute frame of reference for time, so you cannot say that something has "already" happened elsewhere if we are not in the event's light cone [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
Why not? Sure, there's no absolute frame, but extrapolating our local frame out to distant locations doesn't hurt anyone. It's not really useful to do so (much more useful to discuss now as 'light that has reached us now' but there's no reason to say something hasn't already happened just because its light hasn't reached us yet.
Re: (Score:2)