There has been a lot of chatter on the web in recent years about Betelgeuse possibly turning into a supernova soon. Well yea, soon. Which could still potentially mean in the next 100,00 years. But my question is, and this is a dilemma I've been mulling over countless times:
Betelgeuse is approx. 640 light years away from Earth, even if the star would blow up as we speak, wouldn't it mean that we only would be able to witness that spectacle in about 640 years, since the light caused by the explosion would need that long to travel to our planet?
For all the non astronomers who don't know the gist on Betelgeuse. The star is part of the Orion constellation, which is dominating the winter sky right now. It is considered a red supergiant, and it is absolutely huge. The mind-blowing graphic below gives us a sense of the enormous proportions we are dealing with. If Betelgeuse would be placed in the center of our Sun, the giant's outer limits would reach most likely beyond Jupiter.
When i checked the tags on Steemit I couldn't detect anything much regarding astronomy, but if anyone knows of any group or astronomical sub chapter, please reach out and let me know.
Thank you!
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