Betelgeuse becoming a black hole.

[CandidGamera]

There goes the neighborhood!

(Ba-dum-tish)

[Rhythmdvl]

@Gorsnak

Surely that would just make the solar system larger and greener.

The marigolds will be hardy, too. But it’s not looking good for the local rabbit population.

(Anyone else see that as a nine-year-old expecting mutant marigolds and actual monsters? Rip-Off!!!)

[CC]

@Doug_K

But if Betelgeuse is (wioll haven be) a black hole, won’t that be mentioned (mayan’t mentionan on-when) when Ford, Zaphod, Arthur, and Trillian are at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?

Fine, thank you.

[Laggard]

How does one pronounce the name of this star?

[Chronos]

The standard English pronunciation is “beetle juice”. I don’t know how close that is to the original Arabic, but of course that’s only relevant to Arabic-speakers.

[robert_columbia]

@fuzzypickles

Whatever you do, don’t say its name three times.

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse

[Laggard]

Well now I know. Had no idea where Beetle Juice came from.

[ShibbOleth]

I was wondering how a guy, an ordinary Joe like myself, might get a little action around here?

[John_DiFool]

Nice fucking message board! honk honk!

[Lumpy]

“Honk Honk! It’s the Bonk!”

[tracer]

@appleciders

Minutes or less. The black hole will be formed because of the violent supernova explosion, which happens extremely quickly.

<nitpick>

The supernova explosion won’t cause the black hole.

Both the supernova explosion, and the black hole, will be caused by the rapid collapse of the star’s core after it starts fusing iron into heavier elements. (The core’s held up primarily by radiation pressure from its thermonuclear activity, but iron fusion is endothermic, so when it commences the core’s energy production basically vanishes.)

</nitpick>

[cmosdes]

I have a star question…

How many stars did it take to form the Earth? How many stars had to go supernova to form all the elements found on Earth? Would 1 star be enough? How about all the objects in our solar system?

[Lumpy]

Not directly applicable to Betelgeuse since Kepler isn’t pointing that way, but while looking for signs of occultation by planets, the Kepler observatory has been able to monitor subtle recurrent brightness changes in some of the red giants in it’s field of view. On the basis of this astronomers are now able to say which of those stars have begun to burn helium in their cores and which haven’t:

Kepler Spacecraft Takes A Look Inside Red Giant Stars

So maybe a similar spacecraft dedicated to Betelgeuse could determine if, say, it was in it’s last century or less of life.

[TriPolar]

@Chronos

Betelgeuse’s axis isn’t pointed right at us, since we can see variations in the total brightness associated with the star’s rotation. I don’t remember off the top of my head what its inclination is, though.

The only influence would be that Orion would look funny without his shoulder. The gravity of a black hole is no different than the gravity of any other object with the same mass and at the same distance. Even if the Sun were to somehow turn into a black hole, it wouldn’t make any difference gravitationally (though of course we’d miss the sunlight). The only difference between a black hole and a “normal” object, gravitationally, is that you can get much closer to a black hole than to any other object of the same mass.

Ok, but doesn’t a star lose mass when it goes nova?

[Chronos]

Ok, but doesn’t a star lose mass when it goes nova?

Yes, most of it gets blasted away in the explosion. I’m not sure what your question is beyond that, though.

[TriPolar]

Ok, but the gravitational effect would change as a result then? I’m just trying to clear up the posts. I wasn’t sure if some were saying the gravitational effect wouldn’t change, but that was just in reference to the difference between a star before and after becoming a black hole, not counting the mass gone as a result of a nova, i think.

[BrotherCadfael]

@Chronos

The standard English pronunciation is “beetle juice”. I don’t know how close that is to the original Arabic, but of course that’s only relevant to Arabic-speakers.

I’ve also heard it said with the same vowel sound as “beta”.

[Chronos]

If mass gets blasted past you, then the gravity you feel would decrease. When I said that the Sun’s gravity would not change, I meant if the Sun’s entire mass were converted to a black hole (by whatever unknown means; we don’t know of any way it could happen).

[TriPolar]

@Chronos

If mass gets blasted past you, then the gravity you feel would decrease. When I said that the Sun’s gravity would not change, I meant if the Sun’s entire mass were converted to a black hole (by whatever unknown means; we don’t know of any way it could happen).

Thanks, these may seem like stupid questions to you, but with physics I’ve got to make sure I’m getting the facts straight. Too many things defy common sense, so it’s not that obvious to me.

[appleciders]

@tracer

<nitpick>

The supernova explosion won’t cause the black hole.

Both the supernova explosion, and the black hole, will be caused by the rapid collapse of the star’s core after it starts fusing iron into heavier elements. (The core’s held up primarily by radiation pressure from its thermonuclear activity, but iron fusion is endothermic, so when it commences the core’s energy production basically vanishes.)

</nitpick>

You’re correct. I oversimplified.