Over the last weekend, astronomy Twitter started noting that the red giant Betelgeuse, the prominent shoulder of Orion was looking visibly dimmer in the sky, and I had a few people reach out to me and ask me if it was really happening and if I knew what was going on.
This is exciting, of course, because Betelgeuse is living on borrowed time, and it could explode as a supernova any day now. Or, it might not detonate for another 100,000 years. We just don’t know.
What’s Betelgeuse up to? Is this a sign that it’s about to explode? And what would it mean if it did?
Our Book is out!
https://www.amazon.com/Universe-Today-Ultimate-Viewing-Cosmos/dp/1624145442/
Audio Podcast version:
ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/universe-today-guide-to-space-audio/id794058155?mt=2
RSS: https://www.universetoday.com/audio
Weekly email newsletter:
https://www.universetoday.com/newsletter
Weekly Space Hangout:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0-KklSGlCiJDwOPdR2EUcg/
Astronomy Cast:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUHI67dh9jEO2rvK--MdCSg
Support us at https://www.patreon.com/universetoday
More stories at https://www.universetoday.com/
Twitch: https://twitch.tv/fcain
Twitter: @universetoday
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/universetoday
Instagram - https://instagram.com/universetoday
Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com
Karla Thompson - @karlaii / https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEItkORQYd4Wf0TpgYI_1fw
Chad Weber - weber.chad@gmail.com
References:
https://twitter.com/starstrickenSF/status/1209207523179237376
https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/what-will-happen-when-betelgeuse-explodes-df5b04164b2
https://www.eso.org/public/usa/images/potw1726b/
https://hubblesite.org/image/4027/gallery
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0708a/
http://www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=13341
https://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/feature1.shtml
https://twitter.com/starstrickenSF/status/1209242710281986048
https://www.astro.princeton.edu/~gk/A403/pulse.pdf
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1712.01852.pdf
https://aasnova.org/2018/01/03/astrophysics-of-red-supergiants/
https://neutrinos.fnal.gov/sources/supernova-neutrinos/
https://snews.bnl.gov/
https://researchblog.duke.edu/2014/01/22/supernova-explosion-in-m82-exciting-but-no-neutrinos/
https://aasnova.org/2018/04/20/capturing-neutrinos-from-a-stars-final-hours/
https://www.phys.hawaii.edu/~jgl/nuastron.html