Betelgeuse / Two Suns?

[NanceXToo]

So my daughter just told me that a boy she's friends with on our street, who is in either 5th or 6th grade, just told her that his science teacher told his class that on Christmas Day we will have a second sun and everything will be really bright for a few days and- wait for it- that 1/3 of the population will die, in places like Australia and Africa.

 

I told her that was a load of nonsense and I was wondering whether the school really has a science teacher crazy enough to say something like that, or if the boy had made it up, or if he'd misunderstood or exaggerated what his teacher said.

 

So I decided to do a little looking online to see if I could find something that at least part of what he said was based on and came across a few articles on Betelguese, a big star that may or may not collapse sometime soon, becoming a supernova and giving the temporary appearance of two suns. Some said harmless particles may reach earth, some said it is so far away that earth likely won't see much of its light at all-

 

It was said it could happen as early as 2012 and could take much longer.

 

I do wonder where this nonsense about Christmas Day and 1/3 of the population came from though! Please, not from a science teacher!

[Scarlett]

Good grief.

[Excelsior! Academy]

:lol:

 

Where do people get these things?

[bettyandbob]

Perhaps the boy woke up in class in time to hear the weird theories of pending disaster, but didn't hear the disclaimer that it was a theory because that was said while he was still sleeping.

[Mommyof4ks]

It sounds like the boy took what he heard and exaggerated, but of a teacher really said that, oh wow.

[Impish]

Perhaps the boy woke up in class in time to hear the weird theories of pending disaster, but didn't hear the disclaimer that it was a theory because that was said while he was still sleeping.

:iagree::lol:

[NanceXToo]

Perhaps the boy woke up in class in time to hear the weird theories of pending disaster, but didn't hear the disclaimer that it was a theory because that was said while he was still sleeping.

 

lol, maybe!

[Gisel_le]

lol, maybe!

I had a teacher in 6th grade who did that. SOmething about Nostradamus. We're all gonna be dead due to ice age and nukes by a particular date. Yada yada. Scared me so bad. That teacher was a nut but she continued teaching for a few more years. (She also threw books at kids, but that's a whole nuther story. :lol:)

[NanceXToo]

I had a teacher in 6th grade who did that. SOmething about Nostradamus. We're all gonna be dead due to ice age and nukes by a particular date. Yada yada. Scared me so bad. That teacher was a nut but she continued teaching for a few more years. (She also threw books at kids, but that's a whole nuther story. :lol:)

 

Wow. That's crazy! Some people have no business being teachers!

[The Girls' Mom]

I thought you were gonna talk about Ford Perfect.

:iagree::lol:

[Desert Rat]

Perhaps the boy woke up in class in time to hear the weird theories of pending disaster, but didn't hear the disclaimer that it was a theory because that was said while he was still sleeping.

 

:iagree: Or like that old game of Telephone, things got confused in the telling.

[Joshin]

Well, we can all rest easy. Betelgeuse is over 600 light years away. A supernova has to be within 100 light years for its gamma rays to have even the slightest effect on us. I guess it could go neutron, which gives it a small chance of affecting us... but it's huge so will probably turn into a black hole. I know DS desperately hopes it goes nova in his lifetime, but astronomers have been waiting centuries to see it go. (In fact, it could have already but the light from it hasn't quite reached us).

 

 

I too was hoping the thread was about Ford and Zaphod!

[NanceXToo]

I had to look up that Ford reference, I didn't even know what it meant!

[Luckymama]

...shuffles off to listen to the 80s BBC radio dramatizations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the iPod :)

[GailV]

I thought you were gonna talk about Ford Perfect.

 

Then it would've been two HEADS, not two suns.

 

Also, a towel.

[Dana]

...shuffles off to listen to the 80s BBC radio dramatizations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the iPod :)

 

The radio scripts are fun, as is Neil Gaiman's book, Don't Panic.

Adams wanted "something with a banjo" as the theme music for the radio series. It's also great fun reading about how they did the recording and how you could go on the soundstage and most of the actors were in cabinets during the recording... sometimes with Adams writing scripts at the same time they were recording. He was a true procrastinator.

[IsabelC]

Here is the (less sensational) real story. Edited September 27, 2012 by Hotdrink

[lailasmum]

I know betegeuse is supposed to go supernova soon, but soon in universe terms like in the next million years. Not on a certain date. It's nonsense what that science teacher said.

[Laura Corin]

The radio scripts are fun, as is Neil Gaiman's book, Don't Panic.

Adams wanted "something with a banjo" as the theme music for the radio series. It's also great fun reading about how they did the recording and how you could go on the soundstage and most of the actors were in cabinets during the recording... sometimes with Adams writing scripts at the same time they were recording. He was a true procrastinator.

 

I still have (somewhere) the cassettes I made of them as they were broadcast.

 

Laura

[Parrothead]

Sounds like the science teacher (or whoever fed the boy the nonsense) has rolled the Betelgeuse and the Mayan calendar prophesy into one larger mess, and mixed up the dates. There won't be a Christmas this year because the Mayan calendar ends on 21 December 12. ;) :lol:

[Luckymama]

I still have (somewhere) the cassettes I made of them as they were broadcast.

 

Laura

 

I still have my cassettes, taped from the radio :001_smile: Our library has the series on CD so I was able to add it to my iTunes.

[IsabelC]

Sounds like the science teacher (or whoever fed the boy the nonsense) has rolled the Betelgeuse and the Mayan calendar prophesy into one larger mess, and mixed up the dates. There won't be a Christmas this year because the Mayan calendar ends on 21 December 12. ;) :lol:

 

It'll be interesting to see how the Mayan calendar fans rationalize the fact that nothing happens on that date.

[NanceXToo]

It'll be interesting to see how the Mayan calendar fans rationalize the fact that nothing happens on that date.

 

Well, the Mayans were right about no 2013 New Year. We can't possibly ring in a new year without Dick Clark. Maybe that can be the rationalization??

[The Girls' Mom]

It'll be interesting to see how the Mayan calendar fans rationalize the fact that nothing happens on that date.

 

Well, it IS my niece's 15th birthday, and thus begins her ability to be behind the wheel of a car. :lol: (we do give her a hard time about the world ending on her birthday)

[sparkygirl]

20 years ago for my birthday party my parents took 2 friends and I to the observatory at the local university. The discussion that night was on Betelgeuse and how it was going to go supernova. At the time the thought was that the particles would reach earth and disrupt all electronic devices sending us back into colonial times. I was a nutcase about it for weeks and can still vividly remember this that as soon as I saw the title of the thread all of that came back. The teacher probably spoke matter of fact about the supernova and if they mentioned the particle disrupting electronic devices that would explain the deaths in africa and other dry climates as they rely on electronic pumps for water from wells for drinking.