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I found this interesting enough to make a thread about this.
edit: found english articles, so I am changing the translated one with this one
Earth could be getting a second sun, at least temporarily.
Dr. Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland, outlined the scenario to news.com.au. Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's brightest stars, is losing mass, indicating it is collapsing. It could run out of fuel and go super-nova at any time.
When that happens, for at least a few weeks, we'd see a second sun, Carter says. There may also be no night during that timeframe.
The Star Wars-esque scenario could happen by 2012, Carter says... or it could take longer. The explosion could also cause a neutron star or result in the formation of a black hole 1300 light years from Earth, reports news.com.au.
But doomsday sayers should be careful about speculation on this one. If the star does go super-nova, Earth will be showered with harmless particles, according to Carter. "They will flood through the Earth and bizarrely enough, even though the supernova we see visually will light up the night sky, 99 per cent of the energy in the supernova is released in these particles that will come through our bodies and through the Earth with absolutely no harm whatsoever," he told news.com.au.
In fact, a neutrino shower could be beneficial to Earth. According to Carter this "star stuff" makes up the universe. "It literally makes things like gold, silver - all the heavy elements - even things like uranium....a star like Betelgeuse is instantly forming for us all sorts of heavy elements and atoms that our own Earth and our own bodies have from long past supernovi," said Carter.
source:
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/961/Wetenschap/article/detail/1211184/2011/01/21/Straks-krijgen-we-een-tweede-zon-aan-onze-hemel.dhtml
http://www.conservativerefocus.com/blog5.php/2011/01/20/twin-suns-for-earth-if-betelgeuse-goes-super-nova-second-sun-actually-possible-with-no-night
http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/tatooines-twin-suns-coming-to-a-planet-near-you-just-as-soon-as-betelgeuse-explodes/story-fn5fsgyc-1225991009247
http://io9.com/5738542/earth-may-soon-have-a-second-sun
edit:
Another article about this by request (since it clears up a few things)
http://news.discovery.com/space/dont-panic-betelgeuse-wont-explode-in-2012.html
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We won't get a second sun. We orbit one sun and that's final, young man.
Edit: We orbit one sun, we might get a supernova and it might be brighter for a couple weeks, but it's NOT going to change anything for very long.
User was temp banned for this post.
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I just translated the article,
yes if you want to be nitpicky, we will never have two actual suns, but if you would look up at the sky after this has happened it would appear as if we had two.
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That would be interesting, but your source doesn't seem like something I'd believe in right away.
If it were true, and it means that we won't have night, then that would cause serious problems for many species on the planet, wouldn't it?
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United Kingdom16710 Posts
edit: oops didn't read the article right.
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17038 Posts
First, Betelgeuse is usually the second brightest star in Orion, as unless it's at maximum visual magnitude (it's a variable star), it's outshined by Rigel. It's also not the second largest star in the Milky Way by diameter or mass.
The fact that we'd probably see Betelgeuse going supernova any time in the next few million years notwithstanding, the whole idea of two "suns" in the sky is ridiculous. Even at its brightest, it's never going to come close to the brightness of the sun in the sky, and unless we detect it visually going supernova during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, we're not going to see much of anything (because of the position it occupies in the sky).
EDIT: I'm not going to bother responding to any of this 2012 business either. Those of you who think something might actually happen are profoundly deluded.
EDIT2: Oh, and I'm virtually certain that none of us will observe Betelgeuse go supernova in any of our lifetimes.
EDIT3: Apparently OP was updated. There were originally a few factually incorrect assertions that I addressed in my post (part of which no longer makes sense in context).
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From what I can understand, all it says is that it could happen by 2012, but we don't know enough to know if it actually will happen by then. They just know that it's going to happen...eventually. x]
I think it'd be pretty cool to witness though...
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kinda cool 
though even if we get light.. how much extra heat would this mean?
its pretty far away so most likely not much.. but its a thing to consider with all this global warming and all 
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On January 21 2011 17:14 Empyrean wrote:
First, Betelgeuse is usually the second brightest star in Orion, as unless it's at maximum visual magnitude (it's a variable star), it's outshined by Rigel. It's also not the second largest star in the Milky Way by diameter or mass.
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That is actually what the article said, but I probably worded it wrong when I translated it.
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17038 Posts
On January 21 2011 17:16 ZergOwaR wrote:kinda cool though even if we get light.. how much extra heat would this mean? its pretty far away so most likely not much.. but its a thing to consider with all this global warming and all
None. We're going to experience an increased neutrino flux which is going to have virtually no physical effect on Earth.
And for any star to be able to affect global temperatures is an absolutely ridiculous notion.
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If Betelgeuse actually goes supernova, I'm more so concerned if it will create a gamma-ray burst and if it does create such an event, hopefully the burst isn't aimed directly towards us.....
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17038 Posts
On January 21 2011 17:20 MageSoren wrote:
If Betelgeuse actually goes supernova, I'm more so concerned if it will create a gamma-ray burst and if it does create such an event, hopefully the burst isn't aimed directly towards us.....
This is a much more rational concern, but since Betelgeuse's axis of rotation isn't aligned to us, we won't be affected at all.
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it doesnt matter because we're all going to die in a few months anyways in 2012
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I would love to see a super nova, and then suddenly becoming dark again knowing that a black hole is formed. If it ends up being a super massive black hole, we're screwed right?
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It's rather sad that obviously the good doctor knows exactly what he's talking about, and the writers have no clue. Some of those articles are better informed, and some of them latch on the fact that it's an exploding star and somehow manage to drag the Mayans into it. Also...
In fact, a neutrino shower could be beneficial to Earth. According to Carter this "star stuff" makes up the universe. "It literally makes things like gold, silver - all the heavy elements - even things like uranium....a star like Betelgeuse is instantly forming for us all sorts of heavy elements and atoms that our own Earth and our own bodies have from long past supernovi," said Carter.
It almost sounds like the author thinks neutrinos will turn the earth into gold and uranium.
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17038 Posts
On January 21 2011 17:28 jstar wrote:
I would love to see a super nova, and then suddenly becoming dark again knowing that a black hole is formed. If it ends up being a super massive black hole, we're screwed right?
No, as it would have the same mass, and thus the same gravitational effect on surrounding space. Whatever gravitational influence Betelgeuse currently has on us (virtually zero) will remain the same if it becomes a supermassive black hole. In fact, it'll probably exert even less gravitational influence as it's currently hemorrhaging mass at a gigantic rate.
If, say, the sun were to be replaced by a blackhole of equal mass, Earth's current trajectory would be also be undisturbed.
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On January 21 2011 17:21 Empyrean wrote:Show nested quote +On January 21 2011 17:20 MageSoren wrote:
If Betelgeuse actually goes supernova, I'm more so concerned if it will create a gamma-ray burst and if it does create such an event, hopefully the burst isn't aimed directly towards us..... This is a much more rational concern, but since Betelgeuse's axis of rotation isn't aligned to us, we won't be affected at all.
I haven't heard of this before, last I heard people thought they were caused by hypernovae or magnetars... what's the new theory?
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17038 Posts
On January 21 2011 17:32 starfries wrote:Show nested quote +On January 21 2011 17:21 Empyrean wrote:On January 21 2011 17:20 MageSoren wrote:
If Betelgeuse actually goes supernova, I'm more so concerned if it will create a gamma-ray burst and if it does create such an event, hopefully the burst isn't aimed directly towards us..... This is a much more rational concern, but since Betelgeuse's axis of rotation isn't aligned to us, we won't be affected at all. I haven't heard of this before, last I heard people thought they were caused by hypernovae or magnetars... what's the new theory?
From wikipedia:
The most widely-accepted mechanism for the origin of long-duration GRBs is the collapsar model,[56] in which the core of an extremely massive, low-metallicity, rapidly-rotating star collapses into a black hole in the final stages of its evolution. Matter near the star's core rains down towards the center and swirls into a high-density accretion disk. The infall of this material into a black hole drives a pair of relativistic jets out along the rotational axis, which pummel through the stellar envelope and eventually break through the stellar surface and radiate as gamma rays.
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Woah. What do you think a few weeks of no darkness will do to the environment? That's got to screw with your circadian rhythm...
I wonder if any animals or plants would get screwed up by that? Like nocturnal hunters/scavengers might be in trouble, o.o;
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EPT
