A supergiant that collapses on itself and explodes with such force that it releases more energy … [+]
Remember ‘Betelgeuse’ big dims? ‘
A bright red redundant star in our galaxy nearing the end of its life, probably Betelgeuse will explode like a supernova and be visible for 100,000 years on the next day, but its recent episode – which saw it lose its luster two February in February 2020 – turns out to be just … dust.
Observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope show that the unexpected dimming of the redundant star was probably caused by hot material ejected into space that formed a cloud of dust that blocked starlight from the surface of Betelgeuse.
For a time, Betelgeuse almost erupted into action, and there was speculation that it could “go supernova”.
But why? “No one knows how a star behaved in the weeks before it exploded, and there were some ominous predictions that Betelgeuse was ready to become a supernova,” Andrea Dupree, associate director of The Center for Astrophysics, told ‘ and Harvard & Smithsonian. “However, the chances are that it will not explode in our lives, but who knows?”
So some stars cow explode like a supernova soon?
New observations by the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the unexpected dimming of the … [+]
Why Betelgeuse?
Betelgeuse is not the only star who can blow on it, but there are a few good reasons why she gets so much attention. “It’s one of the closest red supergiants and it’s one we can get an extremely good and clear look at,” said Emily Levesque, astronomer and assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington, and author of The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers. She is famous for her work on massive stars. “If you were to name whole stars that are likely to be supernovae, Betelgeuse would certainly be on the list.”
Betelgeuse has become a pet favorite of many astronomers studying red supergiants, but although they also look like it has calmed down and returned to its normal brightness, Betelgeuse is actually not even visible at the moment.
It’s in the sky during the day in August, so even if it went supernova now, we would not see much of it. Sure, we might see it during the day as a very bright star, but that would be a disappointing sight compared to seeing a supernova in a dark sky.
Star Antares and its surroundings, at Scorpius Constellation
Where should supernova hunters look for a supernova?
There’s more to supernova hunting than just starting at Betelgeuse and, fortunately, the other big supernova candidates can be seen in the night sky at other times of the year.
Antares
“Another good candidate is Antares,” Levesque said. “It’s another very extreme red supergiant, in the constellation Scorpius, so it would be an interesting candidate.”
Antares is 600 light-years away, so a little closer to us than Betelgeuse, at about 730 light-years away. It is also about the same size as Betelgeuse. It is visible from both semicircles roughly from March to October.
Eta Carinae
“A large star in the southern hemisphere is a star named Eta Carinae,” Levesque said. “That’s that’s another candidate I think everyone would like to keep an eye on.” More than 8,000 light-years away, Eta Carinae is many tens of times as massive as our Sun – a “hypergiant” star – and is nearing the end of its life; it had a ‘big eruption’ in 1843 and it now looks like two enormous gas clouds with a bright star in the center.
What’s more is that Eta Carinae is slowly becoming clearer … so who knows?
A Hubble Space Telescope image of the supermassive star Eta Carinae.
Why red redundant stars?
“Red supergiants are in the class of massive stars – they are at least eight times as massive as our Sun, and because they are so massive, they go through this very dramatic 10 million year life span,” Levesque said.
By stellar standards, this is super-short, but there are types of stars that can ‘go supernova’. “There are other types of massive stars that we’m very envious of, because they could potentially also give rise to supernovae and they could answer questions about how supernovae come to be, and how stars like this work,” Levesque said. .
Other stars relatively close to us that cow go supernovae include Deneb, Rigel and Spica, the last two visually close to Betelgeuse in the night sky. Research also suggests that a star named V Sagittae, 7,800 light-years away in the small constellation of Sagitta, could explode around the year 2083.
So if you’re looking for supernovae, know that Betelgeuse is not the only star that could explode.
I wish you clear skies and wide eyes.
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