Boom. A flash in the sky. As bright as a thousand suns. A red giant going supernova.

Sounds like the opening line of a dystopian novel about the end of the world. However, this phenomena is as real as it can be. Nothing in this world is immortal. Stars are no exception and one of them.. no, many of them may be dying as you read this.

When a high mass star doesn’t have hydrogen left to burn, it expands and becomes a red supergiant. Most stars quietly fade away but super giants go out with a bang! These explosions are called “supernovas”.

Have you ever thought about how old the stars in the sky are? Calling them centuries old will be an understatement. Truth is, we still can’t tell how old a star is. Whenever we step outside our homes at night to stargaze, we can never be 100% certain whether the star is actually there or not.

Sounds illogical, doesn’t it?

Let us elaborate.

To put it simply; we are all living in the past. The stars are light years away from us. If a star went supernova today, we wouldn’t get to know for a hundred million years or so. Even the sunlight that hits Earth is 8 and 1/3 minutes old.

It really makes you look at all the work and research that scientists are doing may be new to us, but not to the universe.

They are basically like historians. Uncovering what has already taken place.

What was the last discovery that scientists did that amazed you? Its always been the more of the same. They discover a planet millions of light years away, compare it to earth, name it R2-D2 or C-3PO, and all of you go “Woah, that’s so cool!”

Red giants like Antares, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, et cetera, could have already gone supernova. The only catch is that we have no way of confirming it.

Imagine one day you go to look at Orion and find the shape of the constellation to be odd and unusual. It slowly hits you that Betelgeuse is nowhere to be seen. It has died. The only solace one can find in such a situation is that a new nebula is forming.

It is fascinating how contrarily the universe functions.

Just take a second to imagine the immense number of things that have already taken place in the universe. We are just unaware of them. It is a terrifying thought. Ultimately, your mom was always right. You know nothing. And the scientist’s mom was right too!