
Hubble finds that Betelgeuse's dimming is likely due to ejection of gases - dnetesn
https://phys.org/news/2020-08-hubble-betelgeuse-mysterious-dimming-due.html
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raxxorrax
> that the old star was about to go supernova

I think the estimate is that Betelgeuse is about 10 million years old, some
suggest it is closer to 8 million. Our sun is in its prime with 4.5 billion
years.

Glad that stars can have a vastly different life expectancy.

~~~
throwaway5752
Red dwarfs have to counter less gravity pressure and can be fully convective -
they can burn for trillions of years:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf)

~~~
formerly_proven
The _absolute magnitude_ scale is hilarious: logarithmic _and_ inverted. A
value _lower_ by 5 means it's 100 times _brighter_.

~~~
bonzini
The magnitude (absolute or apparent) actually started as an ordinal number: in
Italian we still say sometimes first magnitude instead of magnitude 1. Of
course that doesn't work too well for the Sun's magnitude of -26.

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antupis
Please go boom.

~~~
maskedinvader
yes, please , pretty please, imagine having something as bright as the full
moon visible even during the day, decorating our evening skies for a few
weeks. oh please happen in my lifetime, please !

~~~
Cofor
Wouldn't we be showered by particles/gamma rays though? I mean... its not only
visible light reaching us... but I'm not an astrophysicist

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
There might be a small increase in background radiation, but B is too far away
to do anything dangerous or dramatic.

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jug
Imagine the scientific gains by observing a nearby supernova event “live” (you
know what I mean). I heard most likely is that it would become either a
neutron star/ pulsar or black hole depending on retained material in the
innermost region following the supernova.

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ryneandal
Awesome to have an explanation now. Recently watched this video, and this
reason was one of the suggestions for explanation:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bvuwTuGnkc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bvuwTuGnkc)

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angel_j
Ah, the language of science in our times, a universe described as "violent"
and "traumatic".

~~~
dang
I noticed that weirdness as well. Replaced with representative language from
the article body.

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lightlyused
dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24148796](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24148796)

~~~
eganist
> dupe:
> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24148796](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24148796)

I found this out recently: HN doesn't have a programmatic de-duping system the
way Reddit does, so they permit multiple submissions of the same link and
don't dedupe until one gets traction.

If a link has already had some amount of discussion on it and it's resubmitted
soon after, that's when they de-dupe.

~~~
dang
Correct. Described, along with much else, in the recently expanded FAQ:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html).

