[Androgeos Exeunt]

I can actually hear the sun burning.

DZZZZZZZZZZHHHHHH...

I can hear God.  He's talking to me right now, in fact.

Will we be able to hear the kaboom?

Yes, if you're within 1 mm of the explosion...

[karajorma]

An aurora borealis also causes sounds, if I remember well.

So do lots of other things that aren't in space too.

While the aurora's causes may be due to something from space, it is an atmospheric effect.

[Mikes]

Reported on June 9, 2009, the star has shrunk 15% since 1993. This means the average speed at which the radius of the star is shrinking, over the last 15 years is approximately 470-490 miles per hour. The rate that it has been decreasing in size has accelerated.

...this really sort of puts the size of Betelgeuze in proper context.

It's been shrinking, for 15 years, about as fast (or perhaps a tad slower than) as passenger airliners cruise speed. And it's shrinking has been accelerating.

That's a long distance.

But still, you can't really tell if its just a burp or a hickup yet, even tho it seems likely its the big boom LOL

[Aardwolf]

Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!

[Scotty]

According to the university, Betelgeuse's radius is about five astronomical units

This shows how gigantically HUGE this thing is.  For those who don't know, an AU (astronomical unit) is the average distance from the Earth to the sun.  Call it 143,598,000 kilometers.  The radius of Betelguese is five of those.  717,990,000 kilometers.  That's the radius.  The diatmeter would be twice that.  Betelguese is 1,435,980,000 kilometers in diatmeter.

EDIT:  Sorry, the wiki on astronomical units actually mentions Betelgeuse as having a diameter of 5.5 AU.  Rougly 789,789,000 km.

The mean diameter of Betelgeuse is 5.5 AU (511,258,000 mi.).

I'll leave both up because I don't know which one is the actual size.

[Mobius]

An aurora borealis also causes sounds, if I remember well.

So do lots of other things that aren't in space too.

While the aurora's causes may be due to something from space, it is an atmospheric effect.

Well, those sounds haven't been explained yet. They appear to be connected to particular electromagnetic fields. They're not a product of Earth's atmosphere, only.

[Flipside]

From what I understand, the effect is atmospheric, even though the Aurora is magnetic, I seem to recall it's something to do with the heating of the upper atmosphere meaning that sound can travel much further than it normally would, otherwise, we shouldn't be able to hear it.

[Mobius]

The origin of the phenomenon is not to be connected to Earth's atmosphere, only. But we're going off topic here...

[karajorma]

So? What the **** has that got to do with the sound coming from outer space? That's exactly what I said in my first post.

While the aurora's causes may be due to something from space, it is an atmospheric effect.

The sound does not come from space any more than the sound your radio makes came all the way from the radio station.

[Meleardil]

Charged particles coming from the sun spiraling around the lines of Earth's magnetic field are focused toward the magnetic poles by the focusing magnetic lines. When the charged particles collide with the upper atmosphere, they push the atoms into a higher energy state. When the electrons around these atoms are returning to their base state light of specific wavelength is radiated. You need very low density, so the energy is not lost by collision before the electron transition occurs.

So it IS a very specific upper atmosphere phenomenon. UFF! The astrophysicist has spoken!

[castor]

From what I understand, the effect is atmospheric, even though the Aurora is magnetic, I seem to recall it's something to do with the heating of the upper atmosphere meaning that sound can travel much further than it normally would, otherwise, we shouldn't be able to hear it.

I like the "ELF induced local vibrations" (or something) hypothesis better. It'd also explain nicely some of the other stranger sounds (meteors).

[Mika]

Coming from a person who is living pretty close to the Arctic circle, I know only a couple of people who have said Aurora Borealis make any kind of sound. I have never heard it, and it seems that the noise is audible only in really isolated places. I recall one of my lecturers actually tried to make the sound audible for microphones, but the results were varied. As far as I know, it is still a question whether it exists or not.

What it comes to Betelgeuse brightness, to clear one thing up, it shouldn't be even closely as bright as sun is. That doesn't mean though that it would not be a spectacular sight. I'm with Flipside on this one, count me in on photographing and sleeping on a roof, given it is on summer time and there is a low amount of mosquitos present.

[Goober5000]

I can hear God.  He's talking to me right now, in fact.

Ah, but are you listening to him?

[watsisname]

I can hear God.  He's talking to me right now, in fact.

Ah, but are you listening to him?

Only when I'm not wearing my foil hat.

[High Max]

.

[BloodEagle]

They even say that if a roaming black hole (ones that are said to actually move through the universe) was to start coming close to Earth and sucking the atmosphere, you would hear it too.

Wouldn't the sudden change in air pressure(?) deafen/kill you, first?

[High Max]

.

[watsisname]

How big of a black hole are we considering here?

[Black Wolf]

Will we be able to hear the kaboom?

Only in computer games and TV shows can you hear sounds in space.

"There's supposed to be an Earth shattering Kaboom!"

[Androgeos Exeunt]

...Kaboom!

The detergent?