"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?"
No, no, no, the first way to tell if a star has already gone supernova is by the change in graviton waves.
I know you are trying to be funny but if there are gravity waves (possibly transmitted by gravitons) they would still arrive at the speed of light much like the visible and other EM radiation with very little lead time, if any. These are predicted by General Relativity and as such cannot violate relativity's golden "no information faster than light" causality rule. Even if the current gravity wave detectors were sensitive enough to detect any gravity waves it would be an after the fact detection since it t
Of course all this only applies to vacuum. For example, the light of the sun needs much longer from the center of the sun to its surface, than from the surface to the earth, despite the fact that the first distance is much shorter.
I don't know where exactly gamma ray bursts are produced during a supernova, but if there's a substantial matter in between, I could imagine that they take longer than gravitational waves (gravitational waves might also be affected, but since their interaction with matter is much
Neutrinos arrived about three hours before visible light
True - but unless things have improved dramatically since I last heard a talk from LIGO it would need to arrive days, weeks or even months in advance! Gravity wave detectors measure vibrations and have to have an incredibly complex understanding of their noise. This takes time.
The problem is that the weakness of gravitation compared to electromagnetism and that there is a lot of mass-energy distributed over the sky that we don't see at all (because it does not experience electromagnetism) or that we don't see very well (diffuse gas that has thermalized with the CMBR).
The latter introduces an unknown amount of noise if it isn't as diffuse as expected, particularly if stellar and even planetary DM halos are pervasive and dynamic. If the mass-energy is largely diffuse between the s
Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in years.
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:3, Funny)
because the first we'd know about it would be the gamma burst
No, no, no, the first way to tell if a star has already gone supernova is by the change in graviton waves.
Just need to finish figuring out how to detect those... maybe if we supply more power to the lateral sensor array...
Gravity Waves (Score:2, Informative)
No, no, no, the first way to tell if a star has already gone supernova is by the change in graviton waves.
I know you are trying to be funny but if there are gravity waves (possibly transmitted by gravitons) they would still arrive at the speed of light much like the visible and other EM radiation with very little lead time, if any. These are predicted by General Relativity and as such cannot violate relativity's golden "no information faster than light" causality rule. Even if the current gravity wave detectors were sensitive enough to detect any gravity waves it would be an after the fact detection since it t
Re: (Score:0)
Of course all this only applies to vacuum. For example, the light of the sun needs much longer from the center of the sun to its surface, than from the surface to the earth, despite the fact that the first distance is much shorter.
I don't know where exactly gamma ray bursts are produced during a supernova, but if there's a substantial matter in between, I could imagine that they take longer than gravitational waves (gravitational waves might also be affected, but since their interaction with matter is much
Re:Gravity Waves (Score:2)
Neutrinos arrived about three hours before visible light
True - but unless things have improved dramatically since I last heard a talk from LIGO it would need to arrive days, weeks or even months in advance! Gravity wave detectors measure vibrations and have to have an incredibly complex understanding of their noise. This takes time.
Re: (Score:0)
The problem is that the weakness of gravitation compared to electromagnetism and that there is a lot of mass-energy distributed over the sky that we don't see at all (because it does not experience electromagnetism) or that we don't see very well (diffuse gas that has thermalized with the CMBR).
The latter introduces an unknown amount of noise if it isn't as diffuse as expected, particularly if stellar and even planetary DM halos are pervasive and dynamic. If the mass-energy is largely diffuse between the s