This year can we just all toast to Betelgeuse going supernova so we can start the 2020s out with a *sight* in the night sky heralding a change here on Earth
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To be fair, since Betelgeuse is like 500-700 light years away I guess unless toasts work through some undiscovered scientific principle of time travel, this may be pointless
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There is a very interesting paper about a chain of events from supernovae a few million years ago prompting humans to walk upright, maybe this could just be a time where we simply evolve to be more caring towards each other and the planet. Thank you
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I was curious how much notice we'd get if we pointed one of the Voyager spacecraft at Betelgeuse, because I vastly overestimated how far away they'd gotten. Voyager 1 would give us only 20 hours' notice of the supernova at its current distance (13,816,250,000 miles)
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Why would the signal from Voyager notifying us that it sees a supernova get here any faster than the neutrinos or light from the supernova itself?
Ugh. Good point, light is light. Guess flying cross-country today exposed me to some cosmic rays that damaged my cognitive ability...or maybe it was the airport beers 🤔
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It's a mistake I actually made earlier just thinking about it. :) No worries.
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