Starship Asterisk*

orin stepanek wrote:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984ApJ...284..223L
After finding this link; I presume that the ejecta must be oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon.
I don't know what else it might be.

• The solar weather outside is frightful,
  The nuclear fire is so delightful,
  And since we've no place to go,
  Let It CNO! Let It CNO! Let It CNO!
  
  The fire is slowly dying,
  And, my dear, we're still good-bying,
  But so long as you don't yet blow,
  Let It CNO! Let It CNO! Let It CNO!

[the witch doctor sprinkles some [CNO] on Betelgeuse's head; it starts shrinking]

Betelgeuse: [voice getting higher as head gets smaller] Whoa, hey! What are you doing?
Hey, stop it! Hey, you're messing up my hair! C'mon! Whoa! Whoa! Stop it! *Whoa!*...
Hey, this might be a good look for me.
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http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2p7in ... senora_fun

Hey Art!

If this astronomy thing doesn't pay the bills you can embark on an alternative career writing lyrics

Wouldn't it really be something to see it pop in our time! Then the fourth millenium astronomy books would show images of the remaining nebula not unlike the crab nebula, and insert witty remarks about how the explosion is dated according to ancient scriptures, rumours, legends, artists' impressions,...

Is somebody monitoring it continuosly? Would such a commitmen of resources ever be justified? Will it give known warning signs? (some of the links discuss its shrinking cycle?) What are the chances that an amateur astronomer will be the first to spot it? Actually that is a silly question, because it would be impossible to decide "who was the first". A better question might be to guesstimate how soon the news would make major optical telescopes turn into that direction. I can imagine a cranky old guy whining about Beetlejuice ruining his carefully designed series of observations

Googling for more information confirmed my recollection that in these parts it is spelled Betelgeuze. If I find an explanation for the variations in spelling I will return to this theme.

Cheers,

Jyrki

Jyrki wrote: Googling for more information confirmed my recollection that in these parts it is spelled Betelgeuze. If I find an explanation for the variations in spelling I will return to this theme.

In case somebody is interested;
A web dictionary that I managed to find suggests that it is spelled with an 's' e.g. in English and French, and with a 'z' in e.g. Latin and Finnish . German uses 'Beteigeuze' but for this an explanation as mistranslitteration some time in the history has been offered. Go figure? Wikipedia lists both, but in the English edition Betelgeuze is automatically redirected to Betelgeuse.

The discussion about its pending explosion has been going on for a couple years now (I missed it earlier, because I was double-employed in 06-08 and had scant time for anything else). Some folks were worried about a supernova blinding us as a consequence of a near point-like like source capable of 'turning night into a day' must have awfully high luminosity. Does that wash? Won't the argument raised by the physicist hero in Hoyle's "Inferno" refute this: The human eye is unable to distinguish between a point source and a disc larger than Betelgeuse [the threat was the center of the Milky Way in that story]... (a lecture on elementary wave optics ensued).

Anyway, Betegeuse has an interesting history.

My first encounter with Betelgeuze was as a 6-year old when I was given a set of "astronomy cards for children" (a publisher's reaction to the Apollo program, I presume). There Betelgeuze was described as a giant star, and they tried to make the kids grasp its size by explaining how long it would take to drive around it with a car. The card actually had a picture of a car driving on a stellar "surface" with the numerical data printed next to it. That car would be driving on thin air rather than glowing yellow/orangish plasma

Cheers,

Jyrki

Jyrki wrote:Some folks were worried about a supernova blinding us as a consequence of a near point-like like source capable of 'turning night into a day' must have awfully high luminosity. Does that wash?

Well, the brightest & closest known supernova was Vela 12,000 years ago which was supposedly as bright as a full moon.

Betelgeuse is twice as close as Vela so it might be as bright as 4 full moons
which would certainly make for a bright night but not a particularly bright day.

And a supernova would be a twinkling near point-like like source
with it's dangerous UV-C radiation absorbed out by our ozone layer.

Richard Feynman was able to watch the Trinity A-bomb blast with his naked eye
by using just the windshield of a Jeep for UV-C radiation protection
and his natural "blink reflex" to visible light for the rest.

Now there might be a few folks willing to simply stare at such a supernova
for extended periods...but they should read about Joseph Plateau
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_safety wrote:
<<The coherence, the low divergence angle of laser light and the focusing mechanism of the eye means that laser light can be concentrated into an extremely small spot on the retina. A transient increase of only 10 °C can destroy retinal photoreceptors. Sufficiently powerful visible to near infrared laser radiation (400-1400 nm) will penetrate the eyeball and may cause heating of the retina, whereas exposure to laser radiation with wavelengths less than 400 nm and greater than 1400 nm are largely absorbed by the cornea and lens, leading to the development of cataracts or burn injuries. Infrared lasers are particularly hazardous, since the body's protective "blink reflex" response is triggered only by visible light.>>