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back to article Red supergiant Betelgeuse heads for SMACKDOWN with 'dust bar'

Earth's nearest supergiant red star Betelgeuse is on its way to a spectacular collision when it smacks into a "nearby" dust bar. The whole process will take thousands of years, however. Betelgeuse's enigmatic environment The European Space Agency's Herschel telescope has snapped a new image of Betelgeuse, which is in …

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  1. Winkypop Silver badge
    Coat

    30km a second, eh?

    I'll bet at that speed, the bugs that hit its windscreen are instantly turned into beetle juice!

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  2. Antony Shepherd
    Mushroom

    I'm still kind of hoping that Betelgeuse went supernova around six hundred and thirty odd years ago so I'll get to see the result in the night sky.

    Although it'll be a lot worse than the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster, that's for sure.

    (does not know what a Hrung is, nor why it should collapse on Betelgeuse seven)

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    1. D@v3
      Reply Icon

      night sky, day sky....

      From what I hear, if it did blow long enough ago that we see in in the next 10-20 years, it will be so bright that we will be able to see it during the day.

      Courtesy of 'I Fucking Love Science' on Facebook.

      "It's located about 640 light years away and it could go supernova at ANY MINUTE. Any minute in the next million years, that is. Hell, maybe it already has. When it does, it will light up our skies and be visible during the day"

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  3. teebie

    Hurry *up* star

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  4. The last doughnut
    FAIL

    Thanks for the interesting article. But once again you have failed to provide a caption for the picture.

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  5. Dave Hilling
    Angel

    640 light years away for all we know it could go tomorrow and we wont know until 2653ish. Kind of amazing to think about.

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    1. Alister
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      ...or think of it another way, Betelgeuse could have blown up 600 years ago, and we still wouldn't know about it for another 40 years.

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