Betelgeuse: Second-sun-in-2012 story untrue

William Atkins
Sunday, 23 January 2011 01:34

Opinion and Analysis

A story is circulating that Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star, is going to explode and become a second sun to the Earth. Parts of the story are true, but most of it is pure exaggeration - just a bunch of baloney.

The 'we'll get a second sun in or before 2012' story was earlier reported by the Australian online paper News.com.au in its article 'Tatooine's twin suns - coming to a planet near you just as soon as Betelgeuse explodes.'

The story states in its sub-title: 'Explosion will create 'new sun'' and 'May be set for 2012 appearance.' The phrases are hype, with some exaggerations spread through some facts.

It also states (underlined for emphasis), 'IT'S the ultimate experience for Star Wars fans - staring forlornly off into the distance as twin suns sink into the horizon. Yet it's not just a figment of George Lucas's imagination - twin suns are real. And here's the big news - they could be coming to Earth."

"Yes, any day now we see a second sun light up the sky, if only for a matter of weeks.The infamous red super-giant star in Orion's nebula - Betelgeuse - is predicted to go gangbusters and the impending super-nova may reach Earth before 2012, and when it does, all of our wildest Star Wars dreams will come true.'

These statements imply we will get a 'new' sun (a"twin" star to our current one) and that this event is likely ('may') occur in or "before 2012";" in fact, maybe "any day now."

For one thing, the approximately 10-million-year-old star Betelgeuse is dying (its great mass has made it evolve faster than normal) and it will explode sometime in the future (sometime over the next 1,000,000,000 years).

Scientists have no idea when, they only have a rough estimate (one million years or so). They know Betelgeuse WILL explode, but don't know exactly when.

Stating that it may occur before or during the year 2012 is pure speculation - and it is most likely only written to hype up this Betelgeuse Supernova story and/or to add to the false 2012 scenario of the Mayan calendar (and all of this rubbish that will be circulating until December 22, 2012).

A reader comments, on one of the online articles, that this article should be treated as a humorous story. No, I disagree! It is listed under 'Technology'. If it is humorous, then put it under 'Entertainment' or other such light-hearted readings. Thus, I placed this article under "Opinion and Analysis" on the iTWire website because it is an opinion (blog) piece.

Page two talks about a Fox News article, and others, that debunks this 'we'll get a second sun in or before 2012' story.