"Since its rotational axis is not toward the Earth, Betelgeuse's supernova would not cause a gamma ray burst in the direction of Earth large enough to damage its ecosystem even from a relatively close proximity of 520 light years."
Also it would take 520 years to get here anyway...
But I suppose that makes no difference because the first we'd know about it would be the gamma burst. What we're really discussing here is "Has Betelgeuse already gone Boom?"
We believe we have a pretty good idea about a star's life cycle [wikipedia.org], so to determine when Betelgeuse will "go boom", we need to figure out what element it is mostly fusioning at the moment. If it's hydrogen or helium or even oxygen, we're pretty safe from a boom, but if it's silicon we might have to look out for a pretty light show in the not distant future.
Either way, it shouldn't come as a surprise, and that we'd first know it from the gamma burst is most likely wrong.
...so to determine when Betelgeuse will "go boom", we need to figure out what element it is mostly fusioning at the moment.
This is hard to do. Although I'm a particle physicist, not an astronomer, I say some recent articles about a star "unexpectedly" exploding despite its hydrogen rich outer atmosphere. What you need to know is what elements are being burnt in the core which (apparently) are not necessarily the elements are present in the outer atmosphere of the star.
The stellar spectrum would only tell you what is present in both the outer layers of the star and the "atmosphere" that surrounds the star.
We can identify the elements of the Sun in this fashion, where both incandescent gasses (glowing because they are hot) and absorption of the light takes place. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_analysis [wikipedia.org]
What we do know, however, is that Betelgeuse is no longer a main sequence star on the HR Diagram [wikipedia.org] and is clearly a dying star. The question here is to determine how far along the path of stellar core depletion has taken place, and if tertiary fusion reactions beyond the carbon burning is happening. As each successive element "ignites" on the way to an iron core, the star becomes increasingly hotter in its core.
That is where knowing the "color" of the star is useful, but it won't give away the details of the interior in such an elegant fashion. Nice try, however.
If you carefully plot this star on the HR diagram and notice a substantial change over time, now that would be something worth paying attention to, and could be a warning that the star is about to go supernova. That is in part what the New Scientist article is trying to describe... and that the star is close enough that high resolution telescopes can pick out details beyond treating the star like a point-source of light, so we can glean a little more information than similar stars that are much more distant.
Nova Post! (Score:4, Funny)
Boom!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously - If it goes supernova we should be a bit worried because it's close enough to drown us with radiation.
If that happens all our petty bickering on this planet will seem insignificant.
Of course - it's not certain that the radiation will be strong enough to kill off all life, but things will probably change a lot.
Re: (Score:5, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Also it would take 520 years to get here anyway...
But I suppose that makes no difference because the first we'd know about it would be the gamma burst. What we're really discussing here is "Has Betelgeuse already gone Boom?"
Re: (Score:2)
We believe we have a pretty good idea about a star's life cycle [wikipedia.org], so to determine when Betelgeuse will "go boom", we need to figure out what element it is mostly fusioning at the moment. If it's hydrogen or helium or even oxygen, we're pretty safe from a boom, but if it's silicon we might have to look out for a pretty light show in the not distant future.
Either way, it shouldn't come as a surprise, and that we'd first know it from the gamma burst is most likely wrong.
Hard to do (Score:2)
...so to determine when Betelgeuse will "go boom", we need to figure out what element it is mostly fusioning at the moment.
This is hard to do. Although I'm a particle physicist, not an astronomer, I say some recent articles about a star "unexpectedly" exploding despite its hydrogen rich outer atmosphere. What you need to know is what elements are being burnt in the core which (apparently) are not necessarily the elements are present in the outer atmosphere of the star.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Hard to do (Score:2)
The stellar spectrum would only tell you what is present in both the outer layers of the star and the "atmosphere" that surrounds the star.
We can identify the elements of the Sun in this fashion, where both incandescent gasses (glowing because they are hot) and absorption of the light takes place. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_analysis [wikipedia.org]
What we do know, however, is that Betelgeuse is no longer a main sequence star on the HR Diagram [wikipedia.org] and is clearly a dying star. The question here is to determine how far along the path of stellar core depletion has taken place, and if tertiary fusion reactions beyond the carbon burning is happening. As each successive element "ignites" on the way to an iron core, the star becomes increasingly hotter in its core.
That is where knowing the "color" of the star is useful, but it won't give away the details of the interior in such an elegant fashion. Nice try, however.
If you carefully plot this star on the HR diagram and notice a substantial change over time, now that would be something worth paying attention to, and could be a warning that the star is about to go supernova. That is in part what the New Scientist article is trying to describe... and that the star is close enough that high resolution telescopes can pick out details beyond treating the star like a point-source of light, so we can glean a little more information than similar stars that are much more distant.