Is Betelgeuse preparing to EXPLODE? A new analysis found that the giant superstar faded and entered the helium-burning phase – the first stage of the supernova – but none of us will be alive to see it.
- Betelgeuse is a star brought from the constellation Orion, which has been darkened
- A new study finds that it is in the early stages of burning helium
- This is when helium fuses with carbon and eventually leads to the explosion of the star
- Experts involved in the study say Betelgeuse will explode in 100,000 years
Scientists have been keeping their eyes on the Betelgeuse star since last year, after reports show that the red supergiant is fading – but a new study finds that they are over 100,000 years old until the event.
An international team of scientists suggests that the star is in the early stages of burning helium, when a star burns helium in carbon, which is one of the last steps before the supernova.
The researchers involved in the analysis also found that the smaller variations in brightness of Betelgeuse were fueled by stellar pulsations, along with the location of the star being closer to Earth than previously thought.
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An international team of scientists suggests that the star is in the early stages of burning helium, when a star burns helium in carbon, which is one of the last steps before the supernova
The team is led by Dr. Meridith Joyce of the Australian National University (ANU), who used evolutionary, hydrodynamic and seismic modeling to analyze the brightness variation of Betelgeuse.
This allowed the researchers to discover that the star was burning helium in its core.
This happens when the core of a star reaches about 100 million degrees, causing three helium nuclei to collide and merge to form a carbon nucleus.
The team is led by Dr. Meridith Joyce of the Australian National University (ANU), who used evolutionary, hydrodynamic and seismic modeling to analyze the brightness variation of Betelgeuse.
At some point after this event, the nucleus collapses, causing an explosion that leads to a nebula – regions of dust and gas in interstellar space.
Due to this thorough investigation, the team also found that stellar pulsations led by the so-called kappa mechanism cause the star to light up or fade continuously with two periods of 185 (+/- 13.5) days and about 400 days. .
But the sharp drop in brightness in early 2020 is unprecedented and is probably due to a cloud of dust in front of Betelgeuse, as seen in the picture.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered that the blur is probably due to a traumatic explosion that ejected hot material into space – covering the Earth’s vision of Betelgeuse.
The data showed a cloud of dust formed when the superhot plasma came out of the star, which cooled and formed a cloud of dust that blocked the light on the surface of Betelgeuse.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has discovered that the fading in 2020 is likely due to a traumatic explosion that ejected hot material into space – covering Earth’s vision of Betelgeuse
The size of Betelgeuse has been a mystery to the scientific community, but the latest study found that it has a radio 750 times larger than the sun.
This information also allowed researchers to determine that the star is only 530 light-years from Earth, instead of 700 light-years, as previously thought.
Their results imply that Betelgeuse is not close to the explosion at all and that it is too far from Earth for a possible explosion to have a significant impact here, even if it is still a very big deal when a supernova disappears.