Betelgeuse

On Aug/26/2020 at 15:18, David Spain wrote :
On 8/15/2020 7:57 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:
On Apr/24/2020 at 09:19, David Spain wrote :
On 2020-04-23 7:22 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:
Betelgeuse luminosity is now reaching what it was at its most recent
luminosity high (March 2019) and the curve is not showing any sign
of slowing down. Still too early to be excited, but I think it is
worthwhile to monitor its luminosity.


Alain Fournier


Natch it is now passing into our daylight sky as summer approaches.
If goes supernova we might see a bright spot in the daytime sky this
summer. If it persists into next winter, THAT would be spectacular.

Let's hope if it is heading this way it holds off for a few months!
Personally I hope not. I like it they way it is....

Dave

It has now crossed the sun and has survived :-) Its luminosity is on
its way down. It should be continuing to dim for several more months
(but who knows, it isn't really following the script any more) but it
has already reached its dimmest value of the 20 years prior to
November 2019 (V-magnitude over 1), though still very far from the 1.8
magnitude of earlier this year.

It is hard to tell from the few data points available, but its current
dimming cycle seems to be even more pronounced than the previous one
at the same point in the cycle. So it might dim to more than a 1.8
magnitude this time. Who knows? I still think it is about to go super
nova. On an astronomical time scale, that is within the next 100,000
years or so.


Alain Fournier

So have you seen this article on the possibility it is dimming because
of the ejection of large amount of material that has cooled and is in
our line of sight?

Dave


Synopsis:
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...6hu-story.html


Actual Paper: (paywalled)
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...38-4357/aba516

Yes I had read that. And when I read it, I thought it was a good
explanation for the dimming. But If the dimming happens again this year,
then an explanation needs to be found as for why all of a sudden
Betelgeuse has started to eject large amounts of material.

Note also that "large" amounts of material here means really very large
amounts. The size of Betelgeuse means that a mere billion tonnes of
material would be insufficient by several orders of magnitude.


Alain Fournier

"Alain Fournier" wrote in message ...

On Aug/26/2020 at 15:18, David Spain wrote :
On 8/15/2020 7:57 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:
On Apr/24/2020 at 09:19, David Spain wrote :
On 2020-04-23 7:22 PM, Alain Fournier wrote:
Betelgeuse luminosity is now reaching what it was at its most recent
luminosity high (March 2019) and the curve is not showing any sign of
slowing down. Still too early to be excited, but I think it is
worthwhile to monitor its luminosity.


Alain Fournier


Natch it is now passing into our daylight sky as summer approaches.
If goes supernova we might see a bright spot in the daytime sky this
summer. If it persists into next winter, THAT would be spectacular.

Let's hope if it is heading this way it holds off for a few months!
Personally I hope not. I like it they way it is....

Dave

It has now crossed the sun and has survived :-) Its luminosity is on its
way down. It should be continuing to dim for several more months (but
who knows, it isn't really following the script any more) but it has
already reached its dimmest value of the 20 years prior to November 2019
(V-magnitude over 1), though still very far from the 1.8 magnitude of
earlier this year.

It is hard to tell from the few data points available, but its current
dimming cycle seems to be even more pronounced than the previous one at
the same point in the cycle. So it might dim to more than a 1.8
magnitude this time. Who knows? I still think it is about to go super
nova. On an astronomical time scale, that is within the next 100,000
years or so.


Alain Fournier

So have you seen this article on the possibility it is dimming because of
the ejection of large amount of material that has cooled and is in our
line of sight?

Dave


Synopsis:
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...6hu-story.html

Actual Paper: (paywalled)
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...38-4357/aba516

Yes I had read that. And when I read it, I thought it was a good
explanation for the dimming. But If the dimming happens again this year,
then an explanation needs to be found as for why all of a sudden Betelgeuse
has started to eject large amounts of material.

Note also that "large" amounts of material here means really very large
amounts. The size of Betelgeuse means that a mere billion tonnes of
material would be insufficient by several orders of magnitude.


Yeah, the scale of this would be... incredible.

It's times like this I really wish we had something like the USS
Enterprise."

"Hey Spock, want to go see a star spin off a mass the size of Earth's Moon?"
"That would be fascinating Captain."
"Sulu, Warp factor 6"


Alain Fournier

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