[Nateman]

This star has actually been imaged by the Hubble space telescope.

I hope it's axis of rotation is not pointed our way!

[Nateman]

I just looked up where the pole of rotation of Betelgeuse is . Calculations of where it is suggest that white area in the picture above is the one of the poles. That means it’s pointing towards us. Betelgeuse is big enough to become a black hole. As all that matter goes swirling down into that black hole the resulting traffic jam causes extreme heating of material which flies out along the magnetic field lines creating gamma rays along the axis of spin. I suggest watching this story VERY closely!