A unique eclipse will occur when Betelgeuse, one of the largest and brightest stars in the night sky, temporarily disappears as an asteroid passes in front of it.
TRT World – Fusilatnews – One of the biggest and brightest stars in the night sky will disappear for a moment when an asteroid passes in front of it, producing a unique eclipse.
This rare and fleeting spectacle, taking place from Monday evening to Tuesday morning, will be visible to millions of people along a narrow road stretching from Tajikistan and Armenia in Central Asia, across Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain, to Miami and the Florida Keys and finally, all the way to Miami. part of Mexico.
The star is Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star in the constellation Orion. The asteroid is Leona, a slowly rotating, square-shaped space rock in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Rare eclipse offers insight into Betelgeuse and Leona
Astronomers hope to learn more about Betelgeuse and Leona through the eclipse, which is expected to last no more than 15 seconds.
By observing the much fainter star Leona eclipse in September, a Spanish-led team recently estimated the asteroid to be about 34 miles wide and 50 miles long (55 kilometers wide and 80 kilometers long).
There is still uncertainty regarding these predictions as well as the size of the star and its vast atmosphere.
It is unclear whether the asteroid will completely obscure the star, resulting in a total eclipse.
Instead, the result could be a “ring of fire” eclipse with a very small outline around the star. In the event of a total eclipse, astronomers are not sure how many seconds the star will completely disappear, perhaps up to 10 seconds.
“Which scenario we will see is still uncertain, which makes this event even more interesting,” said astronomer Gianluca Masa, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project, which will broadcast a live webcast from Italy. Rare eclipse offers insight into Betelgeuse and Leona
Astronomers hope to learn more about Betelgeuse and Leona through the eclipse, which is expected to last no more than 15 seconds.
By observing the much fainter star Leona eclipse in September, a Spanish-led team recently estimated the asteroid to be about 34 miles wide and 50 miles long (55 kilometers wide and 80 kilometers long).
There is still uncertainty regarding these predictions as well as the size of the star and its vast atmosphere.
It is unclear whether the asteroid will completely obscure the star, resulting in a total eclipse.
Instead, the result could be a “ring of fire” eclipse with a very small outline around the star. In the event of a total eclipse, astronomers are not sure how many seconds the star will completely disappear, perhaps up to 10 seconds.
“Which scenario we will see is still uncertain, which makes this event even more interesting,” said astronomer Gianluca Masa, founder of the Virtual Telescope Project, which will broadcast a live webcast from Italy.
If Betelgeuse replaced the Sun, it would surpass Jupiter.”
Estimated to be 700 light years away, Betelgeuse is visible to the naked eye.
Binoculars and a small telescope will enhance the view. One light year is equal to 5.8 trillion miles.
Betelgeuse is thousands of times brighter than our sun and about 700 times more massive. According to NASA, it is so large that if it replaced our Sun, it would surpass Jupiter.
At only 10 million years old, Betelgeuse is much younger than the sun, which is 4.6 billion years old. Scientists expect Betelgeuse to be short-lived, given its mass and the rate at which its material burns.
After centuries of varying brightness, Betelgeuse dimmed dramatically in 2019 when a large amount of surface material was ejected into space.
The resulting dust cloud temporarily blocked the star’s light, NASA said, and within half a year, Betelgeuse was as bright as ever.
Scientists predict Betelgeuse will go supernova in a powerful explosion in 100,000 years.
Source TRT World
2023-12-09 05:41:17
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