Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is the red star seen in the constellation Orion, it is his right shoulder. Not to be confused with the movie, or cartoon Beetle Juice.

Since I'm into the whole astronomy thing, I figure I'll keep this going with astronomy information. Especially after hearing the rumor that in 2012 Betelgeuse is going to explode, and produce a supernovae. Not only does the rumor state that it will explode, but it also states that when it does it will give the appearance of their being two suns in the sky here on Earth. It says we will have 24 hour day light for up to a couple of weeks. This little rumor seems to have started from The Huffington Post.

Yes, one day Betelgeuse will go out in a massive supernovae due to it's size. Betelgeuse is about 20 times the mass of the sun and is near the end of it's life. It is also roughly 600 Light Years away, which is way too far away to hurt us. It seems that people are trying to tie it's explosion in with the doomsday date of December 21st 2012. The Huffington Post tried to attribute the date to Dr. Brad Carter, but in the original article he never gives an exact date. Being able to predict something like a star going supernovae as far as I know is impossible. The connection between the date and Betelgeuse's demise is made by the article author, not Dr. Carter himself. Now because of the way media news travels, whether it be true or false this information has gotten everywhere. Unfortunately the story went viral rapidly and other media outlets quickly passed on the news. Luckily some major news outlets dismissed the specific dates and state it like it is; some day soon. Of course in the astronomer's world soon doesn't always mean withing the next year, it could mean 100,000 years from now (which is relativiely soon for a star), it could be next month, it could be longer. No one knows for sure but there is no definitive date on it's explosion, and giving it an actual date is absurd.

The explosion of Betelgeuse won't do any harm to Earth as a star needs to be relatively close, around 25 light years. Remember, Betelgeuse if about 600 light years away.

I just wanted to get that out there in case anyone is looking for information on how to get the best view next year when Betelgeuse goes. Save yourself the trouble of setting up plans and reservations. Probably don't have to worry about it dominating the daytime sky, or even competing with out sun for that matter. It won't be like the scene in Star Wars when watching the twin suns of Tatooine set. I love a good conspiracy theory, especially revolving around 2012, but this one I just can't believe.

While I'm here I'd also like to throw in one more quick thing. If you get the forwarded e-mail claiming Mars will be as big as the moon in the night sky for a couple days, just throw that e-mail right in the trash. It's complete rubbish. There is not a single point in it's orbit that would get it that close to Earth. Just a heads up! I've seen that e-mail quite a few times over the last couple years.

Information sources: Discover Magazine, and International Business Times