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In the largest-ever celestial display, the dying star Betelgeuse will be visible even in daylight for several months
Posted July 11, 2023 • 3 minutes to read
Artist’s impression of the red giant star Betelgeuse. Image by ESO
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When it does, it will be a millennium astronomical event. Betelgeuse, a red giant star in the constellation Orion the Hunter, is about to explode in a supernova.
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There would be no danger to Earth from 650 light years away, but the dying star would shine nearly as bright as the Moon, and be visible even during the day for several months. When it finally dims, it will become invisible to the naked eye. Hunters, known to mankind for at least 30,000 years, will have a shoulder to lose.
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Now some scientists predict that it could happen soon, perhaps in the next few decades.
inside Recently completed studya team led by Hideyuki Sayo of Japan’s Tohoku University suggests that Betelgeuse may be older, and therefore later, than other scientists have calculated.
If Saio’s numbers are correct, the star may have used up all of its hydrogen and helium — the elements that drive nuclear fusion in our sun — and may have burned up its store of carbon atoms.
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“We conclude that Betelgeuse is currently in the final (or nearing end) stages of its primary carbon burn,” the paper notes. “Once the carbon in the core is used up, the core collapse leading to a supernova explosion is estimated to occur within a few dozen [of] many years.”
To be clear, most scientists assume its size is slightly smaller than Betelgeuse, meaning it may have a ways to go before a supernova event – perhaps 100,000 years, though that’s still the blink of an eye in cosmological terms.
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But even there, no one is sure of the exact time. The hope hangs on the galactic gaming table. Bookmakers prefer time frames tens of thousands of years, but there are distant odds, for example, next Tuesday.
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Part of the problem is that nearby supernovae that are easily visible to the naked eye are extremely rare and therefore not well studied. It was last observed from Earth in 1604, four years before the invention of the telescope. (In 1987, a supernova in one of the Milky Way’s companion galaxies was barely visible from the Southern Hemisphere, emerging as a faint new star.)
Whatever its ultimate fate, the bright star Betelgeuse has given humans something to talk about for thousands of years. A Small discs of ivoryFor more than 30,000 years, an image of the constellation Orion appeared next to the 86 degree group, equal to the number of days Betelgeuse can be seen in the sky. It is also the number of days less than a year for humans to become pregnant, meaning that the star can be seen as a harbinger of fertility.
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More recently, historians have noted that Chinese astronomers in the second century B.C. called the star a yellow hue;while four centuries later, Ptolemy of Alexandria named it red, indicating a change in color at that time.
Then in 2019 there was the “great blackout”. Scientists believe Betelgeuse burped out, shedding much of its surface, causing the resulting cloud of dust to rise from Earth over the next two years. One can only imagine what previous generations of astrologers would have made of the events followed by the pandemic.
Since then Betelgeuse He bounced off his burp, which is now brighter than usual. (Interestingly, its dimming and brightness have been seen in various scientific circles as evidence that the end of the world is near.)
But beyond the certainty of their demise is the news that scientists hope to detect neutrinos and possibly gravitational waves one day before the light from the explosion reaches us. Just enough time to pull up a lawn chair and sit back to watch the stellar fireworks display.
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2023-07-11 18:22:56
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