Bad Astronomy Blog confirms the Betelgeuse rumor is FALSE

[unixronin]

(Finally, solid data!)

20100601-22:02:  However much fun it would have been to watch the light show, it seems finally a reputable source, the Bad Astronomy Blog on discovermagazine.com, has weighed in.  And, as most of us expected from the start, the original rumor is just that and nothing more:  An unsubstantiated rumor.  There's no actual new observations of Betelgeuse that would suggest it's any closer to going supernova than we already believed it was 20 years ago.  "No BOOM! today."

I can't say I'm surprised, but I'll admit to being a little disappointed.  A relatively nearby supernova would have been a truly memorable event.

Ah, well.  Just remember — "There's always a BOOM! tomorrow.  Sooner or later ... BOOM!"

Comments

[ithildae]

It really would have been fun! Still, it can't last forever...

Where's the kaboom?

[deeprivermom.livejournal.com]

There was supposed to be a Betelgeuse-shattering kaboom!

Re: Where's the kaboom?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Not this month or year, it seems. But, the general astronomical opinion is that it could easily pop off any time in the next thousand years.

Of course, that doesn't help most of us... no fair!

Re: Where's the kaboom?

[databeast.livejournal.com]

nyahhhhhh.. what's up (from our frame-reference) Doc?

[polaris93.livejournal.com]

Aw, dammit -- and here I was so hoping . . . Guess it's gonna be another dull, boring Summer again.

This is one of the reasons that it would be nice if reincarnation was real -- one could come back again and again until the damned thing finally stopped messing around and treated us all to a big bright light show.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Guess it's gonna be another dull, boring Summer again.

I have an unpleasant feeling we're going to have enough to deal with "here at home" to make it other than boring. But not necessarily in a good way.

This is one of the reasons that it would be nice if reincarnation was real -- one could come back again and again until the damned thing finally stopped messing around and treated us all to a big bright light show.

Never mind waiting for supernovae, I wouldn't mind a chance to try again with a fresh hand in a time and place where I didn't spend so much of my life feeling like a fifth (or seventh) wheel.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

So next time you want to be the Mom?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Uh, I didn't say that.....

[polaris93.livejournal.com]

I have an unpleasant feeling we're going to have enough to deal with "here at home" to make it other than boring. But not necessarily in a good way.

That's true. Thinking about Betelgeuse going supernova was a pleasant distraction from our current and probable future troubles. A supernova (at that distance) is fun. Our actual troubles -- aren't and aren't going to be. Anything but. On top of everything else, we are vulnerable now in ways we weren't before last April -- bad as the economy was and is, bad as certain other things are, they're nothing compared to what BP has just saddled us with. It's almost as if they were secret allies of our enemies. {sour}

Never mind waiting for supernovae, I wouldn't mind a chance to try again with a fresh hand in a time and place where I didn't spend so much of my life feeling like a fifth (or seventh) wheel.

Same here. It's a rigged game -- and it's rigged in favor of the lowest common denominator. Which can't last long, relatively speaking, because that's just cruising for a collective Darwin Award. But the denouement of that is not something I really want to live through. Of course, it could be bad enough and come soon enough that I couldn't live through it, which could be how humanity gets thinned out enough to make life bearable for the survivors.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I just wish it would be over by the end of summer.

As for wheeledness, I am looking at PA programs. ISTM that there will be a lot of demand for medical professionals in the coming years. Yet to be determined if those positions will pay anything...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Boom tomorrow and boom yesterday, but never boom today . . .

[polaris93.livejournal.com]

ROFL!

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

The whole purpose of time is to keep everything from happening all at once. (How about little boom today?)

[unearthed.myid.net (from livejournal.com)]

well this article doesn't confirm or prove the rumor false, actually this article doesn't introduce us any new information, it just highlights the fact that the source can't be trusted as a reliable one, which any sane person already realized. So I don't know how is it a "solid data"...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's a reliable source stating that there is no such dramatic new observation. That outweighs the original unsubstantiated "My son works at Mauna Kea, and he said..."