I'm enjoying Bill Bryson's audiobook, but I was jolted this morning while driving to work. The narrator was speaking about how close a supernova would have to be to the earth to do any damage to us. He mentioned Betelgeuse as the most likely candidate to go supernova in our immediate galactic neighborhood, but not to worry because "it's 50,000 light-years away". Well, with as little as I know, even I was aware that Betelgeuse is WAY closer, like 400 to 800 light-years, not 50,000. How could he get something THAT wrong?