Betelgeuse: A Celestial Superpower Poised to Evolve into Luna 2.0

One of the brightest stars in the sky is behaving strangely, going from bright to dim twice as fast as usual. Scientists believe it will explode very soon.

Betelgeuse, the closest red supergiant to Earth, has long been known to go from brightest to dimmest in 400-day cycles.

But from late 2019 to early 2020, it underwent what astrophysicists called “the great dimming,” as a dust cloud obscured our view of the star.

It now shines at 150% of its normal brightness, and alternates between brighter and dimmer at 200-day intervals, twice as fast as usual. It is currently the seventh brightest star in the night sky, three places above its normal brightness.

Betelgeuse will explode sometime in the next 10,000 years

In the southern hemisphere sky it can be seen shining brightly at sunset, on the shoulder of the constellation Orion. As the days get shorter in the northern hemisphere, it will also be visible there.

And one of the most interesting things about Betelgeuse is that we are witnessing almost in real time the final stages of the evolution of a large star, something we have never been able to study in such depth before.

Observing their behavior allows us to better understand the behavior of red supergiants before the supernova explosion.

Is betelgeuse finally going supernova.!!#NASA #blackhole #universe #space #Black_holes #Earths pic.twitter.com/rQ4TZdFQ84

— GaryanEng (@garyaneng) June 14, 2023

It will be like having two moons in the sky

When it finally explodes, it could, within a week, become so bright that it would be visible during the day and cast shadows at night. That is, it could give almost as much light as the Moon at night.

In ancient Egypt, there are records of the explosion of a star in the form of a supernova. The Egyptians described the appearance of a “second sun” in the sky. For them it was a sacred event.

By the way, is there any danger to us? Supernovae produce high-energy particles called cosmic rays, which can pass through Earth’s magnetic field shield. Luckily this star is too far away from us to be dangerous.

OMG, predijeron que la estrella Betelgeuse va a ser supernova EN LAS PROXIMAS DECADAS, un evento que no se ve desde la tierra hace más de 400 años.
Se estima a que va a ser un punto brillante observable hasta de día y a "ojo", + – del tamaño de la luna pic.twitter.com/ST3TWrvqEN

— ? Matt ?『 Over Heaven 』 (@Matt_KLPS) June 15, 2023

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