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Seeing Red: Will Betelgeuse Go Supernova in 2012?
Gary A. David
www.theorionzone.com Redshifting Into the Future
Fierce Orion raises his right arm that holds a warriors’ club, ready to strike down his foes.The red supergiant star Betelgeuse (pronounced “beetle juice”), also known as Alpha Orionis,forms his right shoulder. Because of its deep orange or topaz hue, it is called the Martial Star.Betelgeuse’s diameter is 8oo times larger than our Sun, and its mass is 20 times greater. It isthe 11
th
brightest star in the heavens, but because it is an irregularly pulsating star called a MiraVariable, its size and magnitude changes. At times its diameter equals that of the orbit of Mars,while at other times its diameter is the same size as the orbit of Jupiter. The magnitude of Betelgeuse also varies. Periodically it becomes slightly more brilliant than Rigel, Orion’s leftknee and the eighth brightest star in the sky. Then for no reason it can reduce in luminosity toapproximately the same as Bellatrix, Orion’s other shoulder and only the 27
th
brightest star in theheavens. Clearly Betelgeuse is not a stable stellar object.1
 
 Astronomers have recently determined that Betelgeuse is shrinking—in a big way. In the last15 years it has lost 15% of its diameter! In the past the size of the star has usually rangedbetween the diameters of the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but now it unexplainably has shrunk tothe size of the orbit of Venus. Although its size is now smaller, its brightness, oddly enough, didnot diminish in the process. In addition, an unusual, large red spot has recently appeared on thestar’s surface.
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All this could be a precursor to it going supernova, when it finally runs out of thermonuclearfuel and ends its 8.5-million-year-old life in a massive explosion. This star would thus becomethe most luminous object in our sky, much more so than our full Moon. It could even rate as thebrightest supernova in history, outstripping those that the Perisans, Arabs, Chinese, NativeAmericans and others recorded both in 1006 AD and in 1054 AD.
2.
If Betelgeuse indeed turnsinto a supernova, it would be visible even during the day and would remain in the night sky formonths or even years before fading away—the right shoulder of Orion sadly vanished forever.Another possible scenario exists: Betelgeuse may have already gone supernova, but we justdon’t know it yet because its light has not reached us! Scientists have not precisely determinedhow far the star is from us, although the commonly accepted distance is 430 light-years. Newmeasurements taken last year, however, increased the distance to 640 light-years.
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Let’s take alook at these figures.Suppose we say that the light from the supernova will reach us sometime during 2012, asalternative science researcher Richard C. Hoagland has suggested.
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The date just three years inthe future is, of course, the much-debated end of the current cycle of the Mayan Calendar. It issignificant that Betelgeuse achieves midnight culmination (or highest point in the sky when thestar crosses the observer’s meridian) each December 21st, the winter solstice—the exact date of the calendar’s conclusion.
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If we assume that the light from the stellar detonation has been traveling for 430 years, itmeans that the supernova actually happened in 1582 AD—nearly a century after that watershedin history that forever altered the fate of the indigenous peoples of the Americas: that is, the“discovery” of the “New World” by Columbus with all its ensuing misery, enslavement, andgenocide.But what important event occurred
specifically
in 1582? It was, in fact, the year PopeGregory XIII rejected the Julian calendar and imposed his Gregorian calendar on the world.According to some scholars of the Maya, the use of this new calendar causes us to be estrangedfrom the natural and spiritual rhythms of the cosmos.“The Mayan calendar can be used as a system of divination, but is also an entirecosmology. The Mayan calendar was designed to synchronize life patterns withearth cycles, biological cycles and celestial/galactic cycles. Its use triggers agrowth and unfoldment of our personal awareness and potential. The Mayansteach that our current calendar system –the Gregorian system imposed by PopeGregory XIII in 1582– is out of sync with our biological rhythms, planetaryelectro-magnetic fields and many celestial cycles. The use of our current calendarsystem is said to encourage disharmony by throwing humanity out of sync withthe living biosphere of the earth. Synchronization with our unnatural calendar has,according to the Mayans, caused humanity to declare war, worship materialismand pollute the planet. We have thus become the enemy of the very biosphere thatwe depend on for our survival.”
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 The employment of this mechanistic calendar paved the way for the Industrial Revolutionand what the prophetic poet and visionary artist William Blake called the “dark Satanic Mills.”He also warned against physical cause-and-effect determinism, reductionism, and excessiverationality: “May God us keep From Single vision & Newtons sleep.” This clockwork universebrought us into the realm of gross corporality and linear temporality, where time is money, and,as the bard Bob Dylan has sung, “money doesn’t talk—it swears.”But what if the more recent measurement of 640 light-years between Betelgeuse and Earth isactually correct? We would then have to ask: What of any consequence happened in the year1372 AD? On this particular date, Acamapichtli (“Handful of Reeds”) became the first ruler of the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City.
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The brutal dynasty he began culminated inpolitical hegemony, military dominance, and the grisly practices of human sacrifice. As weknow, this imperious empire met its demise soon after the arrival of Hernán Cortés and hisconquistadors in Mexico in the early 16
th
century.
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A subsequent Aztec ruler named Nezahualcoyotl, meaning “Fasting Coyote,” was aphilosopher and engineer from the city-state of Texcoco east of Tenoctitlan. His life spannedfrom 1402 till 1472, the date of his death occurring exactly a century after Acamapichtli assumedthe throne. Nezahualcoyotl opted for sacrifice of flowers rather than humans in one temple hebuilt, although he allowed the carnage to continue in the other temples.Nezahualcoyotl was also a poet, and his corpus was finally published in 1582—the firstcandidate we discussed for the proposed date of the Betelgeuse supernova. Living in the centurybefore the Spanish came on the scene, he prophesied the obliteration of the Aztec legacy.
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