A Lovely Image

[KmH]

A rare Wolf-Rayet star (WR 31a) made by the Hubble Space Telescope.
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 - Author: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt - Blue bubble in Carina
(Copyright Information)

 

[Overread]

Very retro-sci-fi feel from that - love the photo!
And inspiring too - as nearly always when we see great stuff from Hubble!

 

[benhasajeep]

I have Hubble pictures as my background on my laptop. Change them up every now and then.

 

[KmH]

My laptop background image is what the constellation of Orion will look like, as generated by Celestia, when Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis or α Orionis) goes supernova.

α Orionis is close to going supernova (a type II-P supernova when it does). Close being anytime in the next 100,000 years or so.

Betelgeuse is so unstable they aren't sure how far away it is and say it is 222 parsecs, +48 or −34 parsecs, away from us. One parsec = 3.26 light years.
So α Orionis is far enough away earth is safe when it does supernova.

For earth to be in jeopardy a supernovae would have to be ridiculously close, like only 10 parsecs (33 ly) away, and there aren't any stars big enough to go supernova that close to us.