What is not known is whether Betelgeuse will turn into a neutron star or a black hole after its end of life explosion. ‘From then on our view of Orion will change forever, The Mighty Hunter effectively losing his right shoulder.’ ‘After many weeks outshining all the other stars in the sky, the supernova’s light will start to fade.
WILL BETELGEUSE TURN INTO A BLACK HOLE FULL
Mr Eagle said that when it does pop it will be ‘as bright as the full moon’ but the light would be contained with a tiny point of light – making Orion strange to look at. Easily visible during the day, and possibly painful to look at directly at night!’ ‘It would be as bright as the full moon, concentrated into a point. ‘If Betelgeuse goes supernova, the blast will take 20,000-100,000 years to reach us, and the Sun’s magnetic bubble will shield us’, says science writer Corey S Powell. It takes about 642 years for the star’s light to get to Earth so any sign that it might be going supernova that we are seeing now, actually happened in 1377.
When it explodes it will appear as bright as the moon in the night sky for several weeks. It’s about 640 light years from the Earth. It is about 100,000 times more bright than the Sun. It’s surface temperature is thought to be about 6,000 F. It is is estimated to have a maximum mass of around 20 to 30 times that of the sun. It can be easily found in the night sky through most of the year. It can be seen from Earth on the shoulder of the Orion constellation. It’s brightness is 7,500 times greater than the Sun. It has a diameter of about 700 million miles. It’s hard being a constant brightness when you’re big enough to engulf the inner solar system.’īetelgeuse is a Red Super Giant star and is one of the largest in the Milky Way Galaxy. ‘Betelgeuse just does this from time to time. The fact it’s dimming is amazing – so weird that Orion looks different – but it’s no more likely to go bang in a dip like this than before. ‘Lots of people are either excited or scared that Betelgeuse is about to go supernova. If it were at the centre of the Solar System in place of the Sun its surface would engulf the inner planets from Mercury to Mars and possibly even Jupiter.Īstronomer and BBC Sky at Night presenter Chris Lintott says the star’s light is variable, which means it’s not likely to go supernova in the near future. A supernova within our galaxy is a once in a lifetime spectacle’, tweeted physics teacher Dr David Boyce.īetelgeuse is a red supergiant star that is about 1,400 times larger than the sun, according to the European Southern Observatory. ‘Whatever happens it will be worth watching. The last time a nearby supernova was visible from Earth was in 1987, that star was in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 168,000 light years away – Betelgeuse is 700 light years away so its explosion would be much brighter. Science writer, Jason Major, says it is unlikely to happen but speculating about the idea of a nearby supernova for scientists is like ‘imagining what you’d do with the money if you won the lottery’.Ī number of scientists have taken to Twitter to express excitement and share knowledge about the star Betelgeuse and why it dimming ‘could’ mean it is going supernova ‘The statistical likelihood of this event occurring during your 90 (give or a take a few years) year lifetime is extremely small.’ ‘When it happens (it would have actually happened ~690 years before we see it on Earth given the star’s distance) it will be as bright as the full moon.’īetelgeuse will explode – it’s just a matter of when – it’s at the end of its life and is due to end in a supernova event, astronomer Dave Eagle explained. ‘Betelgeuse is dimming, which is an indication that it will go supernova soon – when we don’t exactly know’, says space security expert Dr Malcolm Davis. The bright, very large start on Orion’s Belt has been ‘baffling scientists’ as it appears to be much fainter than usual – suggesting it might go supernova. This is a direct image showing the photosphere of Betelgeuse.
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