So, over the weekend in my browsing of some Astronomy sites & forums, I came upon a recent rumor involving the star Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse, is a red variable star, which means it's huge (if it was in our Sun's spot, it would go out to the asteroid belt) & it's brightness changes. It's brightness changes, because it's dying. In fact, it's shrunk 15% since 1993 as of last year (about the orbit of Venus). If you look up in the sky, it's Orion's left shoulder.
Now the rumor is from someone at the Mauna Kea Observatory, is that Betelgeuse is no longer round. That means, instead of a prediction of us seeing a Type II (core collapse) supernova from 600ish years ago (as it's about 600 light years away depending on different estimates) in the next 1000+ years, it could be weeks or months away.
This, would be the coolest fucking thing any of us would ever see. Don't worry, it won't hurt us. Despite the very lethal gamma ray bursts it emits at light speed, it only does so from it's poles which aren't aimed at us. What it would mean, though, would be the brightest star in the sky for months (could be about twice as bright as the full moon) and that it can be seen during the day.
Too bad it's currently in the southern hemisphere.
Edited, Jun 1st 2010 6:28pm by Omegavegeta