E-Mail
IMAGE: Stellar pulsation causes the star s brightness to vary, but the large dip in brightness in early 2020 is unprecedented. A comparison of direct images of the surface of Betelgeuse between. view more
Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al.
Betelgeuse is normally one of the brightest, most recognizable stars of the winter sky, marking the left shoulder of the constellation Orion. But lately, it has been behaving strangely: an unprecedentedly large drop in its brightness has been observed in early 2020 (Figure 1), which has prompted speculation that Betelgeuse may be about to explode.
To find out more, an international team of scientists, including Ken ichi Nomoto at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU), conducted a rigorous examination of Betelgeuse. They concluded that the star is in the early core helium-burning phase (which is more than 100,000 years before an explosion happens) and has smaller mass and radius and i
Seething supergiant Betelgeuse –a star so huge it could someday collapse into a black hole or neutron star, which would make it the closest black hole to Earth some 725 light-years distant– has displayed unprecedentedly large drop in its brightness in early 2020, prompting speculation that the pulsing may be a dire prelude. A new study by an international team of scientists concluded that the star is in the early core helium-burning phase (more than 100,000 years before a supernova event) and has smaller mass and radius–and is closer to Earth–than previously thought. If the bright-red object replaced the Sun at the center of our solar system, its outer surface would extend past the orbit of Jupiter.