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Giant star Betelgeuse mysteriously shrinking: study
AFP on Yahoo ^ | 6/9/09 | AFP

Posted on 06/09/2009 9:46:50 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A massive bright reddish star in the Orion constellation has mysteriously shrunk by over 15 percent in the last 15 years and astronomers have not yet determined why, according to a study released Tuesday.

Betelgeuse, considered a supergiant star, is so large that it would reach to Jupiter's orbit in our solar system. But at a radius of about five astronomical units, the star has shrunk in size since 1993 by a distance equivalent to Venus's orbit.

"To see this change is very striking," University of California, Berkley professor Charles Townes, who whon the 1964 Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the laser, said in a statement.

"We will be watching it carefully over the next few years to see if it will keep contracting or will go back up in size."

According to Townes, the star's size diminished "smoothly, but faster as the years progressed."

The findings were presented Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Pasadena, California, and were based on readings collected at UC Berkeley's Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) atop Mount Wilson in Southern California.

Edward Wishnow, a UC Berkeley research physicist who worked with Townes on the study, said the researchers did not know why the star was shrinking.

"Considering all that we know about galaxies and the distant universe, there are still lots of things we don't know about stars, including what happens as red giants near the ends of their lives," Wishnow said.

Red supergiant stars are suspected to explode into type-II supernovas, cosmic explosions due to a massive star's internal collapse.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; betelgeuse; catastrophism; gammaraybursts; mysteriously; science; shrinking; supernova; wolfrayet; wolfrayetstar; xplanets
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To: NormsRevenge

Someone is turning the light out.


61 posted on 06/10/2009 3:44:26 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (TAZ:Untamed, Unpredictable, Uninhibited.)
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To: Salamander

Not making this easy for me at all, are you?


62 posted on 06/10/2009 7:14:56 PM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud Dad of a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier presently instructing at Ft. Benning.)
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To: SoldierDad

Nobody said it was gonna be easy.....;-D


63 posted on 06/10/2009 9:12:45 PM PDT by Salamander (Cursed with Second Sight.)
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To: NormsRevenge

I have read for years that this star ebbs and flows in brightness.


64 posted on 06/10/2009 9:14:53 PM PDT by Boiling Pots (Barack Obama: The final turd George W. Bush laid on America)
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To: Salamander

And, you never promised a rose garden either.


65 posted on 06/10/2009 9:18:00 PM PDT by SoldierDad (Proud Dad of a U.S. Army Infantry Soldier presently instructing at Ft. Benning.)
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To: prismsinc

Huh? What the hell are you talking about? Your statement made no sense, was contradictory, and if I interpret correctly, not even CLOSE to the working theory of how star lifecycles function.

I don’t call myself an evolutionist, I think it has lots of holes, but when those who actively oppose it can’t even refute a theory by restating the most basic aspects of it, it makes you look like a friggin’ idiot and does your position a disservice.


66 posted on 06/10/2009 10:14:12 PM PDT by Crazieman (Feb 7, 2008 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1966675/posts?page=28#28)
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To: prismsinc

Not even close! Want to try again?


67 posted on 06/10/2009 10:16:54 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: Crazieman

Well, how does it work then Einstein? I have a basic understanding of the nuclear fusion process, hydrogen is the fuel and helium is the by-product.

What is the name of the woman that proved Einstein’s theory of relativity, genius? Since you’re so smart...


68 posted on 06/10/2009 10:19:48 PM PDT by prismsinc (A.K.A. "The Terminator"!)
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To: MHGinTN

Instead of ridiculing me for going by 35 year old elementary school memory, why don’t you correct me then, and be productive in the process, genius?


69 posted on 06/10/2009 10:23:39 PM PDT by prismsinc (A.K.A. "The Terminator"!)
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To: prismsinc

What’s the name of the woman that proved Einstein’s theory of relativity?


70 posted on 06/10/2009 10:26:39 PM PDT by prismsinc (A.K.A. "The Terminator"!)
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To: prismsinc

I’m not deriding you. But you have confused the forming of a white dwarf with the process which a much larger star goes through to form a black hole. Our star will likely eventually become a white dwarf, but is not massive enough to collapse into/become a black hole. And the phrasing regarding ‘taking in helium’ is, well, cryptic at best.


71 posted on 06/10/2009 10:29:50 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: Swordmaker
What we are seeing now was 527 light years ago....
So we should be able to see this star go super nova...
72 posted on 06/10/2009 10:41:00 PM PDT by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM .53 : 1 The FOOL hath said in his heart, there is no GOD.)
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To: dragonblustar

Would the gamma rays travel faster than light ?


73 posted on 06/10/2009 10:43:17 PM PDT by Prophet in the wilderness (PSALM .53 : 1 The FOOL hath said in his heart, there is no GOD.)
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To: MHGinTN

It’s cryptic, yes, but it’s cryptic based on a 35 year old recollection.

Also, while nuclear fusion is complex, the fuel and by-product aren’t. Hydrogen in, helium out. That’s all most of us need to know, really.

Sorry, but the previous poster got a bit smarmy about it and you got caught in the crossfire.

Do you her name, BTW?


74 posted on 06/10/2009 10:44:08 PM PDT by prismsinc (A.K.A. "The Terminator"!)
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To: prismsinc

Before Sir Arthur Eddington did it in 1920?


75 posted on 06/10/2009 10:58:41 PM PDT by PeaceBeWithYou (De Oppresso Liber! (50 million and counting in Afganistan and Iraq))
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To: PeaceBeWithYou

Apologies. I meant the mass-energy equivalence formula


76 posted on 06/10/2009 11:07:48 PM PDT by prismsinc (A.K.A. "The Terminator"!)
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To: PeaceBeWithYou

Actually, I was right the first time. Eddington evidenced it, but he never actually physically mathematically proved it.

It was a woman. What was her name?


77 posted on 06/10/2009 11:12:30 PM PDT by prismsinc (A.K.A. "The Terminator"!)
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To: prismsinc

Are you thinking of Emmy Noether?


78 posted on 06/10/2009 11:36:35 PM PDT by PeaceBeWithYou (De Oppresso Liber! (50 million and counting in Afganistan and Iraq))
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To: SoldierDad

Arrrgh!

I’ll be humming that wretched song in my head all day!


79 posted on 06/11/2009 4:42:32 AM PDT by Salamander (Cursed with Second Sight.)
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To: PeaceBeWithYou

Nope. You give up yet?


80 posted on 06/11/2009 6:38:43 AM PDT by prismsinc (A.K.A. "The Terminator"!)
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