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
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
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
“Look I’m sorry about your shoulder exploding, Orion, but think of the entertainment”
Sorry to be clear, Betelgeuse hasn’t gone supernova yet (that we know of given our distance) but it has gotten smaller in the last decades and very recently has started dimming, which may indicate the beginnings of going supernova
Though sadly less optimistic than I am about Betelgeuse going supernova, @starstrickenSF does a great job of explaining more about Betelgeuse’s physics here:
