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Andromeda Galaxy from the Hubble telescope

November 2020

When will Betelgeuse blow?

So, have you been sitting around each night Orion is in your night sky watching to see if Betelgeuse is going to supernova? Yeah, I'd like to see that also. But, it is a complex thing to try and predict. Apparently, how big the red giant is has a lot to do with when the show will begin. As it turns out, we are not even sure how far away it is, making it virtually impossible to accurately tell it's size. Here's a story at Sky and Telescope with some details:

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/how-big-is-betelgeuse-really/

Arecibo in Danger?

In August, the Arecibo radio telescope suffered a failure of an auxiliary support cable on the massive receiver hanging 300 meters over the disk. Not to be outdone, one of the main support cables failed this month, putting the entire dish at risk. You can read about the failure here: https://astronomy.com/news/2020/11/arecibo-radio-telescope-reeling-from-second-cable-failure

Image courtesy of Astronomy Magazine.
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