Are Betelgeuse preparing to explode? New analysis finds that the supergiant star faded and entered the helium combustion phase – the first phase of the supernova – but none of us will live to see it
- Betelgeuse is a bringer in the constellation of Orion who fades
- According to a new study, it goes through the early nuclear phase of helium combustion
- This is when helium fuses to carbon and eventually causes the star to explode
- Experts involved in the study say Betelgeuse will explode in 100,000 years
Scientists have been keeping their eyes on the star Betelgeuse since last year, after reports show that the red supergiant faded – but a new study finds that it still has more than 100,000 years to go.
An international team of scientists suggests that the star is in the early nuclear phase of helium combustion, when a star burns helium into carbon, which is one of the last steps before supernova.
Researchers involved in the analysis also found that smaller variations of Betelgeuse are driven by star pulsations, along with the location of the star closer to Earth than previously thought.
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An international team of scientists suggests that the star is in the early nuclear phase of helium combustion, when a star burns helium in carbon, which is one of the last steps before 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 clarity variation of Betelgeuse.
This has enabled researchers to discover that the star is currently 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 into one 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 clarity variation of Betelgeuse.
Shortly after this event, the nucleus collapses and causes an explosion that causes a nebula – regions of dust and gas in interstellar space.
As a result of this thorough investigation, the team also found that stellar pulsations driven by the so-called kappa mechanism cause the star to continuously brighten or fade with two periods of 185 (+/- 13.5) days and about 400 days. .
But the large drop in brightness in early 2020 is unprecedented, and is likely due to a cloud of dust in front of Betelgeuse, as seen in the image.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found that the eclipse was probably due to a traumatic eruption that ejected hot material into space – covering Earth’s view of Betelgeuse.
Data showed that a cloud of dust formed when the superhot plasma ejected from the star, which cooled and formed a cloud of dust that blocked the light from Betelgeuse’s surface.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found that the eclipse in 2020 was likely due to a traumatic eruption that ejected hot material into space – covering Earth’s view of Betelgeuse.
Betelgeuse’s size was a mystery to the scientific community, but the latest study found that it had 750 times a solar radio.
This information also enabled researchers to determine that the star is only 530 light-years from Earth, instead of 700 light-years as previously believed.
Their results imply that Betelgeuse is nowhere near an explosion, and that it’s too far from Earth to have the ultimate explosion here, although it’s still a big deal when a supernova goes off.