Scientists are eagerly anticipating the potential explosion of Betelgeuse.
Last year, the Hubble Space Telescope — remember that guy? — heightened the drama when it captured unprecedented images of Betelgeuse blowing its top but not going full kaboom.
Ever since, speculation about when the star will complete its journey to supernova has roiled scientific circles.
Overall, astronomers predict that the famous star, which is still super-bright in its spot as the shoulder of Orion, will go supernova within the next 100,000 years.
That’s a long time for us puny humans, but the blink of an eye in cosmic terms — especially because the operative word is “within,” meaning it could technically blow up tomorrow.
Naturally, scientists on Twitter are cracking jokes about the situation.
“Betelgeuse better explode soon,” University of Chicago astrophysicist Sanjana Curtis joked, “or I’ll blow it up myself.”
NASA planetary scientist Daria Pidhorodetska, meanwhile, quipped that she’s “checking the betelgeuse status account” — a very fun update account a la “Liza Minelli outlives” — “in the middle of a packed bar.”
Betelgeuse’s imminent demise is such a meme at this point that someone resurfaced a 2016 XKCD comic about it — and a quick perusal of the web comic’s site found that it’s far from the only one about the red giant.
While those itching to see the star explode represent the dominant class of astronomy Twitter, there are still some who aren’t ready to say goodbye.
“Am I a bad astronomer for not wanting Betelgeuse to blow up because Orion is my favorite constellation due to its gorgeous symmetry and beauty?” Middlebury College physicist Eilat Glikman tweeted. “I don’t want it to change!”
This article written by Noor Al-Sibai and originally published in Futurism.
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