Betelgeuse Is Destined to Explode as a SupernovaBut When?
Thanks! Share it with your friends!
URL
Sorry, only registred users can create playlists.
269
Views
Description
Long considered one of the brightest stars in the night sky, Betelgeuse has begun to dramatically fade then brighten again for reasons we cant quite pin down. And its caused some people to wonder if it's about to explode.
Catch up on Constellations! https://bit.ly/3uKysSS
Subscribe to Seeker! http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker
Visit our shop at http://shop.seeker.com
Long description:
Despite being roughly 643 light years away, Betelguese is nearly impossible to miss. For starters, its MASSIVE; so big that if it were at the center of our Solar System, it would engulf all the planets up to Jupiter. Its diameter is roughly 1,000 times that of our Sun! To find it, just look at the Orion constellation. If Orion is The Hunter with his iconic three-star belt, then Betelguese is the hunters left shoulder. If youre in the Northern Hemisphere during the first few days of January, you can see Betelguese rising in the east just after sunset. All other times, this star is easy to spot no matter where youre located in the world! Especially September through March.
Some of the earliest known records of Betelguese come from China in the 1st century BCE. These records describe Betelgeuse as being yellow which is strange, because just a few years later, in 150 CE, the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy described Betelguese as red. This indicates that Betelguse rapidly underwent a stellar phase change sometime between the time these two records were made, evolving to become the red giant that it is today.
Betelgueses propensity for fading and brightening over a multi-year cycle also seems to have caught peoples attention. In western Aboriginal Australian oral tradition, Betelguese represents the fire magic used by a love-struck hunter to reach the object of his affection. Unfortunately, the fire magics tendency to flicker out ultimately causes him to fail. While Sir John Herschel continues to be recognized as the first to notice Betelgueses variable brightness, its clear that people living before the 19th century also recognized what was going on.
#stars #betelgeuse #supernova #constellations #astronomy #astrology #astrophysics #science #seeker
--
Read more:
Betelgeuse went dark, but didnt go supernova. What happened?
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/betelgeuse-star-dim-supernova-death-what-happened
"What they do know is that Betelgeuse is running out of time. Its less than 10 million years old, a youngster compared with the roughly 4.6-billionyear-old sun. But because Betelgeuse is so massive and burns through its fuel so quickly, its already in the final life stage of a red supergiant."
Aboriginal Australians Observed Red Giant Stars' Variability
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/aboriginal-australians-observed-red-giant-variability/
"Hamacher found two oral traditions that referenced the variable stars Betelgeuse, Antares and Aldebaran. Their changes in brightness carried important weight in the narratives and helped encode certain social rules, such as signaling to the tribe when to celebrate initiation rituals."
When Will Betelgeuse Explode?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdx5cd1VKto
"In this video, I talk about when Betelgeuse will explode. Spoiler: it's not for another 100,000 years or so! I discuss the physics of the recent dimming and subsequent brightening, and what we can see when we look up with the naked eye."
--
You can probably point to the Big Dipper, Orion's Belt, and your astrological sign in the sky. But what would the constellations look like from another solar system? And will any of Orions stars ever become black holes? In Seeker Constellations, we'll explain the science of the universes most famous stars and dive into the culturally significant stories behind them. Most importantly, well provide a guide to where you can see these incredible constellations for yourself!
--
Seeker empowers the curious to understand the science shaping our world. We tell award-winning stories about the natural forces and groundbreaking innovations that impact our lives, our planet, and our universe.
Visit the Seeker website https://www.seeker.com
Seeker on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SeekerMedia/
Seeker on Twitter http://twitter.com/seeker
Catch up on Constellations! https://bit.ly/3uKysSS
Subscribe to Seeker! http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker
Visit our shop at http://shop.seeker.com
Long description:
Despite being roughly 643 light years away, Betelguese is nearly impossible to miss. For starters, its MASSIVE; so big that if it were at the center of our Solar System, it would engulf all the planets up to Jupiter. Its diameter is roughly 1,000 times that of our Sun! To find it, just look at the Orion constellation. If Orion is The Hunter with his iconic three-star belt, then Betelguese is the hunters left shoulder. If youre in the Northern Hemisphere during the first few days of January, you can see Betelguese rising in the east just after sunset. All other times, this star is easy to spot no matter where youre located in the world! Especially September through March.
Some of the earliest known records of Betelguese come from China in the 1st century BCE. These records describe Betelgeuse as being yellow which is strange, because just a few years later, in 150 CE, the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy described Betelguese as red. This indicates that Betelguse rapidly underwent a stellar phase change sometime between the time these two records were made, evolving to become the red giant that it is today.
Betelgueses propensity for fading and brightening over a multi-year cycle also seems to have caught peoples attention. In western Aboriginal Australian oral tradition, Betelguese represents the fire magic used by a love-struck hunter to reach the object of his affection. Unfortunately, the fire magics tendency to flicker out ultimately causes him to fail. While Sir John Herschel continues to be recognized as the first to notice Betelgueses variable brightness, its clear that people living before the 19th century also recognized what was going on.
#stars #betelgeuse #supernova #constellations #astronomy #astrology #astrophysics #science #seeker
--
Read more:
Betelgeuse went dark, but didnt go supernova. What happened?
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/betelgeuse-star-dim-supernova-death-what-happened
"What they do know is that Betelgeuse is running out of time. Its less than 10 million years old, a youngster compared with the roughly 4.6-billionyear-old sun. But because Betelgeuse is so massive and burns through its fuel so quickly, its already in the final life stage of a red supergiant."
Aboriginal Australians Observed Red Giant Stars' Variability
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/aboriginal-australians-observed-red-giant-variability/
"Hamacher found two oral traditions that referenced the variable stars Betelgeuse, Antares and Aldebaran. Their changes in brightness carried important weight in the narratives and helped encode certain social rules, such as signaling to the tribe when to celebrate initiation rituals."
When Will Betelgeuse Explode?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdx5cd1VKto
"In this video, I talk about when Betelgeuse will explode. Spoiler: it's not for another 100,000 years or so! I discuss the physics of the recent dimming and subsequent brightening, and what we can see when we look up with the naked eye."
--
You can probably point to the Big Dipper, Orion's Belt, and your astrological sign in the sky. But what would the constellations look like from another solar system? And will any of Orions stars ever become black holes? In Seeker Constellations, we'll explain the science of the universes most famous stars and dive into the culturally significant stories behind them. Most importantly, well provide a guide to where you can see these incredible constellations for yourself!
--
Seeker empowers the curious to understand the science shaping our world. We tell award-winning stories about the natural forces and groundbreaking innovations that impact our lives, our planet, and our universe.
Visit the Seeker website https://www.seeker.com
Seeker on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SeekerMedia/
Seeker on Twitter http://twitter.com/seeker
Post your comment
Comments
Be the first to comment
