Re: Science: Everything explained by PV=nRT, F=ma=Gm(1)•m(2)/r^2
Re: Science: Everything explained by PV=nRT, F=ma=Gm(1)•m(2)/r^2
Imagine if you were 'right next to it' as it happened and survived long enough to notice it.
That would be unpleasant. Betelgeuse is large enough that if placed in our solar system at the position of the sun its surface would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It's... big. (It's
really light, though. Only about 20x the mass of the sun.)
To put it another way, Betelgeuse has an absolute magnitude of -5.14, a distance of 428 light years, and an apparent magnitude of +0.45.
Now, luminosity at distance A = (luminosity at distance B) × [(luminosity B)/(luminosity A)]^2.
If Betelgeuse was as close as the next nearest star, Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light years away, more than 100 times closer to us, then it would be more than 100^2 = 10,000 times the apparent magnitude. The stellar magnitude scales are reverse logarithmic. An object with a magnitude 5 higher than another's magnitude is 100 times dimmer. So Betelgeuse would have an apparent magnitude of approximately -10. All the time. The brightest star is Sirius, -1.5. Venus is -3. The full moon is -13. In other words Betelgeuse would be easily visible during bright daylight. On a moonless night with it high in the sky in a dark place, it would make you cast a shadow.
And that's
before it explodes.
we don't see them all. that's why they call it space
