“Betelgeuse: The Strange Behavior of a Dying Star with Potential Supernova”

• Betelgeuse is confusing astronomers again, because it is now shining 50% brighter than usual.
• This dying red giant recently mysteriously dimmed after a huge explosion.
• It is thought to explode in a supernova visible from Earth, though unlikely for thousands of years.

Betelgeuse, one of the most visible stars in Earth’s sky, is behaving very strangely.

The red giant – a star not far from death – was now shining 50% brighter scientists say.

This comes just a few years after it mysteriously died down in 2019, sparking speculation about whether it was ready to crash and bust.

Scientists later discovered that Betelgeuse had not collapsed. But it had a big bang, which affected its brightness.

Recently, astronomers observed Betelgeuse returning to its brightest state about twice as fast as usual, in about 200 days, according to research. published On the arXiv preprint server on May 18.

It’s not uncommon for Betelgeuse to get dimmer and brighter – but this is after a 400 day cycle. Experts say this shortening of cycles is likely related to the Great Dimming of 2019.

Your friendly giant dying star

Scientists keep an eye on Betelgeuse, because this red giant is a dying star about to go supernova. However, due to the enormous timescales in the life of a star, this last step can take thousands of years.

Betelgeuse (pronounced like Tim Burton’s character Beetlejuice) is a relatively young star in Earth’s backyard, located in the Milky Way some 640 light years away.

It is about 10 million years old, much younger than our Sun, which existed about 5 billion years ago. But this star is so massive, about 700 times the size of the Sun, that it’s already starting to die.

“One of the coolest things about Betelgeuse is that we’re watching the final stages of massive star evolution happen in almost real time for us, which we’ve never studied this deeply before,” said Sarah Webb. , an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, In an interview with The Guardian newspaper.

The explosion is still being felt

Betelgeuse’s strange behavior is likely related to the Great Dimming of 2019 and 2020.

Scientists started sounding warning bells when they discovered that Betelgeuse briefly lost brightness in 2019. When a massive star suddenly loses brightness, it could be a warning sign that they are ready to explode.

But subsequent analysis suggested something else – an explosion. Betelgeuse released large amounts of its plasma into space during the explosion, as seen in an artist’s painting here:

The explosion was so large that it created a thick cloud of cosmic dust that stood between Earth and Betelgeuse, obscuring the star.

said Andrea Dupree, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks the star. Scientific American The star’s strange behavior is most likely the result of this massive explosion.

“Just imagine if you took a big piece of material,” he said, “then all the other stuff would flow, and it would roll.”

Betelgeuse could explode in a supernova as seen from Earth – one day

When it finally exploded, Betelgeuse was far enough away to be harmless to our planet, but close enough to be a great show for anyone watching.

On that day, the scenery would be crucial. The eruption will be so bright that it can be seen during daylight for about a week, The Guardian reported. Insiders previously reported that the last time such a supernova exploded in our galaxy was in the 17th century.

That is, if humans are still there to see it. Experts were quick to explain that this was unlikely to happen for at least another 10,000 years.

However, stars are very unpredictable, so the presence of a supernova in our lifetime is not completely impossible.