Betelgeuse shrinking??
http://blogs.discovery.com/space_disco/ ... thing.html
June 10th 2009
If there's one thing I've realized when writing articles about space, is that it is very easy to link a mysterious astronomical phenomena with doom. If not doom for Earth, certainly doom resulting in a huge explosion of some kind, destroying something, somewhere...
Mystery = Doom
Let's look at a very simple example: In 1983, NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) carried out the first ever space-based survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths.
IRAS spotted some mystery infrared objects (make a note of the word "mystery"). This would be expected, I suppose, as this was the first survey of its kind.
The Washington Post picked up on NASA's initial findings and published an article entitled "Mystery Heavenly Body Discovered," in which the author lays out some possibilities for these infrared objects. Initial reports postulated that one of these objects could be a long-period comet, or a planet, or a far-off young galaxy or a protostar.
Innocent enough, you may think. However, this one news article planted the seed of an entire Planet X doomsday scenario that has given root to countless YouTube videos, doomsday books and now, a Sony Pictures movie, to be released in November.
It's of little concern to doomsday "believers" that these mystery infrared objects were identified as ultra-luminous young galaxies far, far away, and not a nearby Earth-killing "Planet X". Doomsday theories stick, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.
Shrinking Stars and Supernovae
So, today I read about the incredible observation by astronomers that the famous red supergiant star Betelgeuse is shrinking. According to University of California, Berkeley astrophysicists, over the last 15 years, Betelgeuse has shriveled by 15% in diameter.
This is a startling observation in my opinion. Although the star has undergone no variation in luminosity, to be able to distinguish a 15% reduction in size of a star some 600 light years away is astonishing. The supergiant isn't even an "easy" star to observe; as it's so old, it's undergoing some violent changes, blasting hot gas into space, shrouding its surface from view. Only by using the extremely sensitive Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) on the top of Mt. Wilson in Southern California, researchers were able to see through the haze and measure the star diameter with such precision.
On reading through the Berkeley press release, there is no mention that this shrinkage could indicate Betelgeuse is about to explode. Granted, the 15 year shrinkage is a "mystery" (there's that word again), but the star has been known to vary in size in the past. In fact, it is known to pulsate in size with periods of one and six years. Also, the rotational period of Betelgeuse is once every 18 years; simulations suggest the star is not spherical, so the shrinkage could be an illusion, we are seeing a potato-shaped disk on its thinnest edge.
Despite all these factors, Fox News runs with the title "Nearby Star May Be Getting Ready to Explode." Using the Berkeley press release as a source, and quoting all the facts mentioned above, they've put two and two together, made five and declared stellar Armageddon.
Oh dear.
They've also made their own prediction right at the end:
It's possible we're observing the beginning of Betelgeuse's final collapse now.
If so, the star, which is 600 light-years away, will already have exploded — and we'll soon be in for a spectacular, and perfectly safe, interstellar fireworks show.
Yes, it's totally possible Betelgeuse could explode, but the chances of this happening in this 600 year window is highly unlikely, regardless how fast it seems to be shrinking.
Needless to say, the Fox article has done the best on the social bookmarking sites, hitting the front page of Digg. Everyone loves a supernova. As for the "shrinking star" reports, not so much.
This may not have the makings of the next, great doomsday movie plot, but it is an example how definite conclusions (i.e. a supernova) can be made from a fairly benign, yet interesting astronomical "mystery".
Sources: AFP, FOX, UCB, Universe Today
http://blogs.discovery.com/space_disco/ ... thing.html
June 10th 2009
If there's one thing I've realized when writing articles about space, is that it is very easy to link a mysterious astronomical phenomena with doom. If not doom for Earth, certainly doom resulting in a huge explosion of some kind, destroying something, somewhere...
Mystery = Doom
Let's look at a very simple example: In 1983, NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) carried out the first ever space-based survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths.
IRAS spotted some mystery infrared objects (make a note of the word "mystery"). This would be expected, I suppose, as this was the first survey of its kind.
The Washington Post picked up on NASA's initial findings and published an article entitled "Mystery Heavenly Body Discovered," in which the author lays out some possibilities for these infrared objects. Initial reports postulated that one of these objects could be a long-period comet, or a planet, or a far-off young galaxy or a protostar.
Innocent enough, you may think. However, this one news article planted the seed of an entire Planet X doomsday scenario that has given root to countless YouTube videos, doomsday books and now, a Sony Pictures movie, to be released in November.
It's of little concern to doomsday "believers" that these mystery infrared objects were identified as ultra-luminous young galaxies far, far away, and not a nearby Earth-killing "Planet X". Doomsday theories stick, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.
Shrinking Stars and Supernovae
So, today I read about the incredible observation by astronomers that the famous red supergiant star Betelgeuse is shrinking. According to University of California, Berkeley astrophysicists, over the last 15 years, Betelgeuse has shriveled by 15% in diameter.
This is a startling observation in my opinion. Although the star has undergone no variation in luminosity, to be able to distinguish a 15% reduction in size of a star some 600 light years away is astonishing. The supergiant isn't even an "easy" star to observe; as it's so old, it's undergoing some violent changes, blasting hot gas into space, shrouding its surface from view. Only by using the extremely sensitive Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) on the top of Mt. Wilson in Southern California, researchers were able to see through the haze and measure the star diameter with such precision.
On reading through the Berkeley press release, there is no mention that this shrinkage could indicate Betelgeuse is about to explode. Granted, the 15 year shrinkage is a "mystery" (there's that word again), but the star has been known to vary in size in the past. In fact, it is known to pulsate in size with periods of one and six years. Also, the rotational period of Betelgeuse is once every 18 years; simulations suggest the star is not spherical, so the shrinkage could be an illusion, we are seeing a potato-shaped disk on its thinnest edge.
Despite all these factors, Fox News runs with the title "Nearby Star May Be Getting Ready to Explode." Using the Berkeley press release as a source, and quoting all the facts mentioned above, they've put two and two together, made five and declared stellar Armageddon.
Oh dear.
They've also made their own prediction right at the end:
It's possible we're observing the beginning of Betelgeuse's final collapse now.
If so, the star, which is 600 light-years away, will already have exploded — and we'll soon be in for a spectacular, and perfectly safe, interstellar fireworks show.
Yes, it's totally possible Betelgeuse could explode, but the chances of this happening in this 600 year window is highly unlikely, regardless how fast it seems to be shrinking.
Needless to say, the Fox article has done the best on the social bookmarking sites, hitting the front page of Digg. Everyone loves a supernova. As for the "shrinking star" reports, not so much.
This may not have the makings of the next, great doomsday movie plot, but it is an example how definite conclusions (i.e. a supernova) can be made from a fairly benign, yet interesting astronomical "mystery".
Sources: AFP, FOX, UCB, Universe Today
KG's quote is what I was referring to.
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