What Would Happen If Betelgeuse Burst Right Now?

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star known for its significant dimming events and the potential to explode in a supernova, located in the Orion constellation. This video covers the behavior of Betelgeuse, highlighting its size, luminosity, and the recent observations that have led to speculation about its imminent future.

[@chrisredding6673]

If we see Betelgeuse go supernova now, it actually happened roughly 500 years ago. 🙂

[@ozgott1415]

612 ly... so when I read the video title I was like ... nothing... nothing would happen.

[@garcemac]

@@ozgott1415 You are correct. That title, though. It would look cool for a month or so, and Orion would never be the same, but that's about it.

[@justaguy-69]

@@ozgott1415 642.5 light years away..

[@EinsteinKnowedIt]

Betelgeuse, that's pronounced 'beetlejuice', exploded 500 years ago as retribution, not for the Peasant War like we first thought but for what King Henry the VIII said to Pope Clement VII when the Pope would not grant the divorce. Turns out this slight exploded Beetlejuice way back then. I'm just keeping it 💯

[@twerkintwinkie786]

@@EinsteinKnowedItbruv what are you even saying? It exploded because it became to unstable as a stellar body, not because of anything else.

[@andrewgrady4296]

If it exploded right this second.........nothing. I wouldnt live to see it because of the time it will take for the light to reach us.

[@pvfa39]

Exactly 💯 💯 💯

[@billgalen9014]

It may have already happened and the news is only just about to reach us-in our lifetimes!

[@Rizefix]

He means for us

[@Stubbies2003]

@@billgalen9014 Probably not. Estimates go out to roughly 100k years left in it's lifetime before it goes supernova.

[@justaguy-69]

@@Stubbies2003 its been dimming and brightening oddly and nobody quit understands why, it may be prepping for a supernova in our lifetimes, (meaning its explosions light may reach here soon)

[@goldandsilveruk3268]

A star went supernova in the Pinwheel Galaxy visible in 2023, I'm lucky enough to have taken a picture (as did many others) of the Galaxy prior to and after the supernova. It only looked the a new star popped up but it was really cool to see with the knowledge of what it actually was.

[@perigee1275]

Astronomers, the ones who know what they're talking about, are saying that it's too far away to hurt us.

[@rdelrosso1973]

If it COULD hurt us, what do we do? Hide under the desk?

[@waynejohnstone3685]

@@rdelrosso1973lol duck and cover

[@Waluigi164]

@@rdelrosso1973if it could. Nothing. It would be revelations. The atmosphere would blow off like a screen. We would be exposed to space radiation. Imagine a nuke but from above and the size of the sun. Luckily we wouldn’t get much energy cause usually energy dissolves in waves in all directions. So the further we are the less degree of “energy” we would receive.

[@richardmercer2337]

The only star close enough to hurt us is our own....

[@AndieBlack13]

Astronomers calculate Betelgeuse at some 700 light-years distant, its diameter bloated in size to about out to Jupiters' orbit in diameter...the axis point off about Fifteen degrees. This axis point is important as jets of energy are expelled along its axis...these jets can dangerous at immense distances.

[@NoBetterBentley]

We'd all wait 700 years to have surprised expressions

[@mikefanchin]

Burst? These things "bursst"?

[@NoBetterBentley]

@@mikefanchin ...huh, what?

[@justaguy-69]

640 light years away

[@justaguy-69]

no, when we see it happen it really happened 642.5 years ago, the light from it just got here.

[@NoBetterBentley]

@@justaguy-69 my stupid joke was because the video title says "burst right now" pay attention

[@donlewis470]

When you look at the constellation Orion, at Betelgeuse, you see it not as it is now, but as it was centuries ago. It takes light that long to get from Betelgeuse to here.

[@mech0p]

yep, its probably already exploded but if were lucky it exploded around 500+ ly ago and we might get to see it in our life time.

[@danthesquirrel]

Your video title promised some wild speculation on what would happen to the Earth today if Betelgeuse went supernova... And it did not deliver! I should have known better when I didn't see an apocalyptic thumbnail image for the video.

[@runawayskeleton]

how does the video title promise anything about earth? the title doesn’t mention earth at all

[@erasethepatterns1]

It doesn't mention earth but I had to check. The speculation about every single other thing in this scientism propaganda piece is void of any provable facts. Sad.

[@kashalethebear]

It's because absolutely nothing would happen. It's too far away

[@thecreatonaut6165]

I was taught that it's to far away to have any real effect on us. Although, it would be bright enough to light the night sky for two weeks. It would be lit up like dawn.

[@pauliexcluded1]

I hope I live to see it, even if it kills me. 😅

[@stormysyndrome7043]

It is. It burst in 2019 and these folks still think it’s “going” to burst. It had zero effect on us even after blowing out a majority of its load.

[@gymhayes4613]

None of the stars near us will ever affect us. It will be as bright as the full moon at night and will be visible for several weeks. We will also be able to see it in the day.

[@josephcernansky1794]

@@gymhayes4613 a Gamma Ray Burst will scorch the entire side of the Earth that it hits...within the few seconds or minute it lasts.

[@gymhayes4613]

@@josephcernansky1794 betelgeuse is too far. The other local stars wont pop before humanity is gone. This is my jam bub.

[@bertferri-5685]

With my luck, I'll probably be having a nap and miss the whole thing.

[@logicplague2077]

It will be visible for a while after it happens, something like a month I think.

[@thomas-gw3xf]

with the earth worms !

[@fobbitoperator3620]

Or get rudely awakened, with a start...

[@Justyn219]

You're missing it right now lol

[@kentkrueger6035]

There will be a bright light in the night sky. There will be a brilliant light show for anyone here to see. Over a period of months to a few years it will gradually fade from view. Beyond that, we are in no danger from Bettalguese.

[@randar1969]

Exactly it's too far to pose a serious danger for Earth. If it blew within 20 lightyears we would not be so lucky.

[@JamesGowan]

Just don’t say it three times! 😅

[@MrSmithwayne]

when you have black holes and neutron collisions eclipsing its host galaxy by folds of magnitude it truly puts into perspective our tiny little star in how easily life can be extinguished by such an explosion.

[@bigbadcreoledaddy]

It won't do a thing except give our posterity a short but spectacular show.

[@OBGynKenobi]

In the universe there's no such thing as now.

[@smoothlyrough512]

Um, when something happens now, that's called now. Effects wouldn't happen for a long time. But still, when they happen it'll still be now at that time.

[@Killin_365]

Jeffery Epstein didn’t kill himself.

[@kayoscreed]

When faced, it's now. Probably good :)

[@ThomasDowning-ud6fz]

Awesome comment!!! Eloquently brief. And yet profoundly deep!!!! ☮️☮️☮️

[@livinb450]

How soon is now?

[@zekeedwards7904]

This gives you an idea about distances in space. Light can travel around the earth about 7 times a second, betelguise could of already exploded before Shakespeare was born, the light just hasn't reached us yet 😮🤯

[@mistereffyou8050]

It's so fascinating how we haven't even really left our own backyard yet we already know this much about the life and death of certain objects across the cosmos. It's truly impressive.

[@peterjannen6012]

Before working in astrophysics were you the voice of Huckleberry Hound? That would be so cool

[@berndmayer3984]

"now" in astronomy means mostly our lokal time when we know or see it.

[@MagnumMike44]

It might have already gone supernova but since it's about 640 light years away, we wouldn't see its light image for (640 - x) years. x equals the distance in light years the supernova light image has already traveled in the vastness of space.

[@rossdavies8250]

Interesting and informative. I would suggest one thing, though. When you cut to captioned illustrations, they are not on screen long enough to both read the caption and look at the picture. Either give a few seconds longer to each slide, or remove the caption and speak it, while the viewer looks at the picture. Other than that minor point, this was most enjoyable.

[@brucehemming9749]

Great video first time seeing your channel in my feed liked and sub’d…. When bettlejuice does go nova do we know if there are any planets in its orbit and will we be able to detect the impact on them??? Many thanks for sharing 🍻👍

[@setzkem]

great video, thanks for posting

[@lawren-hollienelson9948]

Thank You for the Great Tour

[@nimueh4298]

If Betelgeuse went supernova today, we wouldn’t see it until about 640 years from now.

[@patcummings2355]

Excellent narration!

[@popquizzz]

The probability that supernovae themselves can induce detectable ripples in spacetime detectable in gravitational waves is pretty unlikely to occur and to be detectable would likely require a LIGO type observatory in space on a magnitude of close to the Earth - Moon orbit. Ninety-Five percent of the mass of a Super Nova stay relatively close to the star during the gravitational collapse of the star and resulting expulsion of the outer layers of the star resulting in much of the mass collapsed into a white dwarf but still gravitationally stable in essence with relatively much the same spacetime gravitational annealing in place but expanding only due to the materials shed.

[@skyeye5150]

We would know nothing for over 500 years since it's over 500 light years away.

[@williamsteele]

At 650 light years away, nothing would happen except a very bright spot in the sky for a brief time.

[@antoniomontana5778]

Yep, we would be seeing something like a movie that was filmed six hundred some years prior.

[@marcocambray7725]

Are the extra dimension springs for space time to rebound

[@Entity_BlackRed777]

AWESOME!! Can't wait!!!

[@carolynallisee2463]

In answer to the title question, as far as we are concerned, not a lot. Because even light takes time to travel the vast distance, it would take a number of years for that light to reach us. So, Betelgeuse could explode now, and we wouldn't see the light of it until it reached us... As for the tag, 'We're not ready!', we don't have to be. Betelgeuse is too far away from us for any harmful effects to reach us. At best we'd have a second bright light in our sky during the day, but that's about it. That and the fact that the constellation Orion will forever be missing a key component, that is.

[@brianhammer5107]

Depends. Gamma-ray bursts are dangerous much farther away than only 600 light-years, which is this star's maximum distance. If the burst is pointed at where our general direction will be (400-600 years in the future) there may be trouble.

[@smoothlyrough512]

When it happens millions of years from now, it will STILL be now at that time

[@MarekFr]

@@brianhammer5107 Yeah, but the chances of this happening are practically non-existent.

[@perigee1275]

By "now" they mean when we see it happening.

[@Stubbies2003]

@@brianhammer5107 You still missed the point. Carolyn is pointing out that the whole "we're not ready" is click baity and she would be 100% correct. Even if a GRB was produced by Betelgeuse going supernova and somehow pointed directly at us what in the world are you, or the video maker, suggesting we can do to "be ready" for it? Or are you suggesting that everyone make a "bomb shelter" underground made with thick lead walls in the super rare chance that not only does that supernova happen but also makes a GRB pointed directly at us?

[@1974dodgecharger]

Well made video!

[@LachlanJackson-ws1py]

For some reason I always trust the British accent for narrating space/scientific videos over the American....

Not just “American accent” BUT THE ACCENT FROM THE SOUTHERN STATES. IT IS INHERENTLY ANTI-INTELLECTUAL, AND SLOVENLY. THE PRODUCERS OF THIS PROGRAM SHOULD NEVER HAVE ALLOWED THIS DISTRACTING NARRATOR.

[@troyholdenvoices]

Wow racist much?

[@maxwellduncan3555]

Neither British nor American are a race. ​@@troyholdenvoices

[@shanent5793]

That's a very scientific approach!

[@AR_86]

Haven't watched this channel in a minute and this new voice is very disconcerting and I don't like it much. Edit: I've never watched this channel before-- I thought this was a 'What If' video... 😳🤷‍♀️

[@RCDesertRat]

Van Gogh inadvertently captured a supernova in his painting “Starry Night”

[@DreamingwithD]

Great video❤

[@user-un7tj2fr5t]

We wouldn’t know about it for quite some time. It’s that whole speed of light thingy. 👍

[@danceswithcritters]

It may already have happened, and we could see it today.

[@averteddisasterbarely2339]

I recall reading an article that stated Einstein never called general relativity a theory , it was a German scientist in 1906 who said it was !

[@Robert-do3cd]

When Einstein released the completed general relativity in 1915, the title of the paper was "The general theory of relativity" He released special relativity in 1905, but that wasn't a theory,.

[@averteddisasterbarely2339]

@@Robert-do3cd I stand corrected ! Thank-you .

[@cousinavi147]

A spectacular spectacle.

[@garybyoosey3163]

Shouldn't we be able to witness countless supernovas at all times due to the sheer volume of stars out there?

[@BrianArnold-fh6ks]

Obviously you think betelgeuse is a balloon

[@lovelywaz]

"What Would Happen If Betelgeuse Burst Right Now?" Absolutely NOTHING to us, at least not until 642.5 years from "right now".

[@DinsDale-tx4br]

We should have a few years warning by monitoring any untoward effects on Sirius.

[@thetinkerist]

It would be nice display, especially in the evening.

[@1DesertPirate]

This video told of what happens when a star experiences a supernova explosion and what the cosmic particle emissions from a supernova could do to any nearby planet's biosphere and atmosphere. It would have been interesting if the video how Betelgeuse going supernova might impact Earth, 600 or so years after it went supernova.

[@bestlifeever4548]

It's 2 months later, and watching it happening live online now

[@roguegalaxy8758]

🙇‍♀️”..Amazing!”

[@georgejoachim320]

The dimming observation happened 5 years ago. That is hypothesised to be dust emission. The question is how long does a supernova take to happen once a significant material emission has taken place? If this question can be answered then the supernova time could be guessed. The whole thing is like the date of release of prepaid games. Speculation.

[@omnimetric84]

It would be a spectacular spectacle!

[@mrhassell]

724 light-years away from Earth. We're safe, completely safe.

[@sigurdkaputnik7022]

05:07 The star emitted this large dust cloud roughly 700 years ago and we saw it in 2020 because of that huge distance. So if Betelgeuse bursts right now we wont notice for another 700 years. But if we were to see it in our lifetimes it would be quite a spectacle, something our modern human society has not experienced yet.

[@colincampbell3679]

Well, right now as others pointed out Nothing! And By The Way, stop calling this star Beetle Juice, It is called Betelgeuse, You don't call the Polar Star Polystar do you? So call this star by it's right cataloger star name please. The Red Super Giant is about 580 to 600 light years away in Orion, So even if it went up now it would be 580 to 600 years if the blast wave was going at light speed before it even got here in the Sol System. and even then no problems as by that time the wave would have been almost nothing in strength. But since the blast wave be most likely only going at the most 10% of light speed it would take Thousands of years to get to our star system. And any Neutron star or Black Hole left after the Super Nova would also be so far from us those too would be no problem. So no no problems for our future humans. Since none of the possible Giant Stars out there that can go Super Nova are anywhere nearby us, We live in a stable part of the Galaxy. If We don't then we would not be here alive like we are.

[@innocentbystander3317]

Need a medium for there to be a "blast wave." This is space, and gravity waves won't hurt you. You're more at risk from the narrator throwing empty PBR bottles than this star going nova..

[@paulshriver1132]

no it isn't

[@sreimert]

If people could stop using "theory" when they actually mean "hypothesis", I would be so happy.

[@williammay5300]

What spectral stars nova and hypernova?

[@ronnieboucherthecrystalcraftsm]

642 light years away = beautiful = so it would be a magnificant display in the sky and = WE ARE ALL FAFE = for our lifetimes at least = BLESSINGS TO YOU ALL !

[@barrymalpas4901]

Actually not. If it went off 642 years ago then it would be visible this year.

[@erika8357]

In space no one can hear your supernova explode.. But definitely see it 😄

[@richardbennett4365]

What about kilonovae and hypernovae and novae?

[@PMike-rc3jb]

I’m currently watching the live streaming for it right now!!! lol that’s wild.

[@mercurusblastomus879]

It would take radiation traveling at the speed of light to reach us from Betelguise exploding about 752 light years. Any blast debris would take thousands of years to reach Earth.

[@JohnSmith-fl6qd]

I understand that astronomers say that gold is produced not buy a supernova but by neutron star collisions

[@manuelgonzales6483]

I work graveyard shift and watch it nightly hoping I will see it as it blows. 😱💥

[@Texas240]

Why are so many bot channels talking about betelgeuse recently? It's fluctuating luminosity was in the visible spectrum, but not the infrared. This means it's energy output was normal and it "dimmed" because dust or debris blocked visible light. Another channel wins a "Do not recommend" award.

[@roysigurdkarlsbakk3842]

Last I checked, Betelgeuse was tilted the wrong way for a supernova to affect Eearth much, at least as of now. If we were looking into one of its poles when it went off, we'd be in trouble, though…

[@frankhoffman3566]

To me the most interesting aspect of this is the sudden collapse of the star. You have this massive star many times the diameter of our own and all the millions of cubic miles within it all but simultaneously reaching the point where the fusion pressures cannot counteract gravity. I think the supernova is still thought caused by the unbelievably high speed of the star's mass as it races toward the core of the star and then collides with the mass coming from the other direction.. You have to know this mass must be traveling close to the speed of light when it hits the sun's nucleus. Fascinating

[@shanent5793]

It's only the innermost part of the star's iron core that collapses so quickly. When the electron degeneracy pressure fails to counteract gravity, a volume about the size of the Earth shrinks to a few kilometers in radius, which generates neutrinos, some of which interact with the remaining, now infalling iron. It is the neutrino-iron interaction that powers the shock wave that results in a supernova. It can take hours for the shock to reach the star's surface

[@frankhoffman3566]

@@shanent5793 ..Yeah, that's what I said.

[@shanent5793]

@@frankhoffman3566 you said the star suddenly collapses, when it's actually only the core. That's significantly different

[@frankhoffman3566]

@@shanent5793 Don't have a lot of friends, do ya?

[@shanent5793]

@@frankhoffman3566 what does that have to do with your ignorant take on supernovae?

[@floydbraido2426]

What happens if Beetlejuice go supernova, ONE HELL OF A LIGHT SHOW.

[@imbetterthanyouis]

its light is fluctuating again , the current hypothesis is its boiling

[@RandomExitsJT]

We are likely to experience a micronova from our own star, the Sun, before we experience Beetlejuice going supernova.

[@richardbennett4365]

Why dies the narrator say type "eye" a and "eye" other letters, but when he speaks of Type II suoernova, he then switches to numbers, saying two instead of double "eye" or "eye 👀 eye." Strange.

[@zanetrukk]

Or supernova and supernov A. Makes me want to throw my phone

[@deedubya286]

What he is actually saying is "supernovae" which is the plural of supernova. How he could know that and yet confuse Type1A supernova as being Type IA, I have no idea.@@zanetrukk

[@ccthomas]

​@@deedubya286I strongly suspect this is a text-to-speech bot reading a script. For me, the giveaway was the strong southern/texan accent, yet it pronounces "nuclear" correctly.

[@KebbaPropulsion]

I wouldn’t worry about the spelling. It takes 600 years for the letters to get here….

[@coryg1109]

If it went, we would be fine since we are good distance away. FYI, Betelgeuse has dimmed many times in the past....almost cyclical in nature.

[@robertbenkelman947]

If it exploded just now, what would happen to the earth? Nothing right now! Betelgeuse is some distance from us, Astronomers suggest 422 +/- lights, but the distance is debatable. Some astronomers suggest that the earth is too far from us but honestly that can be debatable. Let’s say it did blow and it has since gone supernova, we will not know for 500 years. However I saw a story about Polaris the north star, that star is acting up. But if we were much closer, better pray….

[@gowdsake7103]

A pretty light show !

[@jacksimpson-rogers1069]

Oh, BTW, there are labs of inordinate sensitivity that have detected gravitational "waves" that have traveled billions of light years.That fantastic wave of energy is a sphere billions of light years in diameter, and the events originated billions of years ago! The instruments are designed to detect a movement of that shell of space, the 'height' of the 'wave', that is a fraction of the diameter of a proton.

[@Mechmaster0]

"Burst"? It's a star, not a pimple.

[@dovbarleib3256]

Actually because BeetleJuice is NOT a Main Sequence Star and is in its Red Giant phase and because its distance is greater than 320 light years away (the maximum for deriving distance by Parallax), there are some rather large error bars on its distance, somewhere between 550 light yrs and 650 light yrs. One might think that when Voyager traveled beyond Uranus, it would have faced its cameras at Beetlejuice to get a more precise Parallax distance measurement. Maybe that did happen.

[@bitemyshite]

Oh sure, Betelgeuse and the billions of other stars whose true distances are unknown

[@lazarusstewart8686]

I want to congratulate you not only is your information correct, but that you also hired a human to read it! I'm already tired of the AI bulshit on KZbin. Thank you for this post.

[@vladtepes4526]

At such distance only a hypernova or GRB could be dangerous, but Betelgeuse doesn't have the mass and rotation rate required for both and will explode as a standard harmless IIP supernova, not brighter than the full Moon.

[@raymondmeyers8983]

It likely already went supernova a long time ago. The light just hasn’t reached us yet.

[@Peter-xo6bn]

You would see it in around 645 years because that is how far away it is in light years.

[@thomasgarwell8214]

If it happened right now, we wouldn't see it. Those in approximately 700 years will see it though

[@paulshriver1132]

a bright light in the sky, not visible on Earth for a long time

[@kwaki-serpi-niku]

We live in a universe where objects are placed unbelievably vast distances apart, and the speed of light or rather the speed of electromagnetic radiation is such that it takes massive amounts of time for this radiation to travel between these sparsely spaced objects. So Beetlejuice is over 600 light years away from planet Earth. Anything that happens in current time at Betelgeuse will take over 600 years for us to observe it. It could have already had its supernova, but the electromagnetic radiation that we would observe of that event hasn't gotten here yet. Everything that we observe about our universe is in the past.

[@CoolCademMAnimates-fz1ui]

I heard that the star already exploded and it’s expected that we can see it soon

[@luvr381]

Elements heavier than iron are produced, but not distributed by supernovas. For that you need kilonovas.

[@PeterParker-gt3xl]

IF it does, we all would "sorely" miss it.

[@markferguson8075]

if it went bang right now we wouldnt know, its like that dimming it had not long ago for us happened around 500 years ago

[@jacksimpson-rogers1069]

He neglected to say that there are two kinds of nuclear fusion, depending upon whether the "fusants", the nuclei fusing together, are less or more massive than iron. Hydrogen-1 fusion, into helium-4 (obviously it's four hydrogen nuclei, protons, in three steps. These are "exothermic" fusion, they emit energy , and that opposes the gravity pulling the outside inwards. But when gravity starts winning, it slams nuclei together to make stuff like gold, platinum, or lead. More to the point I'm making are really massive elements like actinium, a series called actinoids, of which the commonest survivors are thorium and uranium. All the actinoids are radioactive, which is because the vast amount of gravitational energy which squeezed them together is more, even slightly more, than the "strong nuclear force" between neutrons and protons can hold these nuclei together. Alpha radiation is a particle the same as a helium nucleus, moving very fast, but fairly easily stopped. Beta is an electron or its opposite, a positron, and Gamma is a very high energy photon. The Tohoku earthquake was caused by "natural" radioactivity, but NOT by the Fukushima reactor meltdowns. IT caused Them. This planet's core and mantle are kept fluid by sufficient amounts of mildly radioactive uranium and thorium, and potassium 40, which is in bananas and all of us. Volcanoes, Earthquakes, continental drift, and geothermal energy are caused by this. Fission energy is far higher than radioactivity, and millions of times more than chemical, per tonne or kilogram of fuel.

[@LocateA]

There. Are u happy? Everyone dies" LOL

[@smoothlyrough512]

The human race WILL NOT last forever.

[@seanhewitt603]

That's what Palpatine kept telling Anakin in his nightmares. Everything dies, even the stars.

[@lassoatrain]

They are telling us that Betelgeuse will go nova this year. The truth is No, Betelgeuse is not expected to go nova this year. The timing of Betelgeuse’s potential supernova explosion remains uncertain, with estimates ranging from potentially happening in the next few decades to possibly taking up to a thousand years. While there have been fluctuations in Betelgeuse’s brightness and some studies suggesting it could be nearing the end of its life cycle, there is no definitive timeline for when it will explode as a supernova. Therefore, the idea that Betelgeuse will go nova this year is not correct based on current scientific understanding.

[@brandonqueen9327]

If it exploded this very second i understand that we will not see it for many years to come due to the massive distance light has to travel in order for us to see it. But could the JWST see it fairly soon after it actually exploded due to it being able to look extremely long distances?

[@philb5160]

KZbin really needs to have a rating system that reflects viewer interest based on how long they view the video and likes vs dislikes. This video actually has nothing to do with the title.

[@anthonykoller4459]

If it explores right now, it will hit the earth in 500 years time and we will be long gone by then and flying around in space ships

[@STHFGDBY]

Though Beetleguese is unstable, it could last another 1.000 years, or even 10,000 years or 100,000 years before going Nova. Nobody can predict when it will explode .

[@cseguin]

Space and time become other things when taking the scale of galaxies and the universe into account. "What would happen if Betelgeuse burst right now?" - well - we wouldn't know for another 640 years . . . so, who knows - the whole thing could've gone off anytime during the past 600+ years - so, "right now" doesn't mean much . . .

[@jackheisterman6731]

wasnt there a supernova named 1987A

[@mikeyd946]

None of us right now would exist. If we did (maybe) witness it, we would be perfectly fine. Would see a bright light show which would be spectacular and would go down in the history books.

[@hyundaisonata580]

I like the way they try to scare you with the title.

[@KwoliToli]

I love the graphics

[@InabaPrism]

Funny question. We wouldn't know. In fact, we'd all be dead by the time the supernova's light reached Earth, along with a handful of generations that haven't even been born yet. That's what would happen.

[@Scott-hc8om]

If it burst right now we'd have 642 years to get ready. However, if we SEE it burst today....

[@GeoHvl]

What if this even happened 642 years ago???

[@jeffsaxton716]

Betelgeuse too far away to cause us any harm. It will just be very interesting to see.

[@jimyhalfpoint5852]

Yes but what about the ones that have gone supernovas unkown to us further away coming at us.

[@al2207]

if it goes right now we will have to wait 640 years before it show to us