Of the billions and billions of stars in our cosmos, there are right now both new stars being born as well as old stars dying. The stuff that we are made of, and the world around us is composed of atoms created in the crucible of dying stars. We are beings made of star dust, and that very being could not have been if it were not for our stellar ancestors who have long since departed.
Please excuse my Sagan like spiel. Eno's Apollo album is playing, and that might have something to do with my spacey eloquence.
The star Betelgeuse is about to explode, ANY MINUTE NOW! ...or any millennium now. It is known that Betelgeuse is a late stage Super Red Giant star, and that it is predicted to explode in a type two supernova very soon; very soon, that is, in astronomical terms. While a supernova could be seen any minute, it is estimated that it will happen within the next Million years. And if star supernovas are anything like waiting for the cable guy to install your new cable box, if the estimate is between now and a million years, you might want to give up hope that it will happen on the sooner side of the appointment estimate.
But now there is some more juicy and wild speculation! Not only will this event happen at the winter solstice on December 21st, 2012, it will appear to be a second sun in the sky resembling the twin suns of Tatooine from Star Wars: A new hope.
Now that would be pretty awesome. I'm already in the desert, and still full angst from not knowing where I fit into this world, hoping for and adventure that will reveal my destiny. I'll have my moment to stair angstilly (that isn't even a word) at the setting of twin suns while I wear my karate gi. It will be great. Get some storm troopers to bump off my Aunt and Uncle and I am just another step closer to the life I've dreamed of since I was ten.
The reality of the matter is quite different, and yet the significance of Betelgeuse going supernova is still not at all diminished. If the red giant star does supernova, it will only be about as luminous as the Full Moon, roughly 1/100,000th the brightens of our Sun. Not quite a second sun, but noticeable in daylight. The tying in to the Mayan Calendar and the 2010 hullaballoo is just another silly pseudo scientific bit of nonsense; the cherry on top of the crackpot ice cream sunday if you will.
But what if...
The significance of Betelgeuse in astronomy is tremendous, It is ninth brightest star in our sky and it is also part of Orion, one the most recognized and most appreciated constellations in the heavens. Just the tradition of stellar navigation going back thousands of years is profound. The Orion constellation has significance with nearly every culture dating back to ancient times. This red giant, the shoulder of Orion, is of immense cultural, historical, mythological and even of navigational importance to all of man kind. If Orion were to Supernova, and later become invisible to the casual viewer, it would be almost as much of an impact to our culture as if the Big Dipper disappeared, perhaps even greater.
The following is completely Science Fiction.
What if on December 21st, 2012 We Do whiteness the supernova of Betelgeuse? I say whiteness, because, for us to see the supernova of Betelgeuse the moment the Mayan calendar ends, it would have had to have happened 0ver 600 years ago. The star is over 600 light years away, and there's that whole Speed of Light thing to factor in. If the Mayan Calendar is as prophetic as some would like to believe, then a great event at the end of the B'ak'tun, and the great cycle of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar would be amazing. While some say it will be the end of the world, and others make ridicules cataclysmic predictions I have another more subtle, but equally profound [sci-fi] idea.
Ask any Mayanist about 2012 and they will not spout off about silly apocalyptic ideas. The end of the Mayan Calendar is just like the end of our calendar; we pull out the Far Side a day calendar we just got for Christmas and start over when the previous one ends. That is we could, if only Gary Larson didn't completely retire and then also refuse to let us have our yearly reruns in 365 day increments. I am still a little bitter about that.
The day Betelgeuse appears to supernova and is lost to the naked eye it, will mark the end of an age. While it may not impact our lives today, consider the significance of the stars in the past. If Betelgeuse had gone at a time when the stars were not just pretty things to view at night, but celestial bodies that were depended on, this would have been a titanically profound moment. If the Mayan astronomers were as advanced as some modern day pseudo science followers claim, they might have predicted the supernova of Betelgeuse and then chiseled that end date into their long count calendar to mark the future end date of their age. If if and when Betelgeuse does supernova between now and the end of human society; from that time, you would almost be able to split up the entire history of human culture in terms of the Betelgeuse Era (BE) and After Betelgeuse Era (ABE).
It's purely a Sci-Fi idea, But while I am partying up at some wild 2012 Party I will try and take a moment to stop and look and Orion and its Right (our Left) Shoulder. Maybe a brilliant light will shine day and night and call on a new age. Maybe nothing will happen.
Perhaps more than 600 years later the star will finally be observed to supernova, and with more accurate recording of distance astronomers might be able to calculate that the moment the supernova occurred was exactly on December 21st, 2012.
That would be a shit your pants moment.
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