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Keyword: betelgeuse

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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day - Betelgeuse Eclipsed

    12/15/2023 1:29:35 PM PST · by MtnClimber · 14 replies
    NASA ^ | 15 Dec, 2023 | Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer
    Explanation: Asteroid 319 Leona cast a shadow across planet Earth on December 12, as it passed in front of bright star Betelgeuse. But to see everyone's favorite red giant star fade this time, you had to stand near the center line of the narrow shadow path starting in central Mexico and extending eastward across southern Florida, the Atlantic Ocean, southern Europe, and Eurasia. The geocentric celestial event was captured in these two panels taken at Almodovar del Rio, Spain from before (left) and during the asteroid-star occultation. In both panels Betelgeuse is seen above and left, at the shoulder of...
  • Betelgeuse Is Being Weird Again. What Gives?

    05/23/2023 11:59:28 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 51 replies
    Science Alert ^ | 23 May 2023 | By MICHELLE STARR
    Red giant star Betelgeuse. (ALMA - ESO/NAOJ/NRAO, E/O'Gorman/P.Kervella) Since what has come to be known as the Great Dimming that took place in the latter half of 2019 and early 2020, the red giant star Betelgeuse just will not stop with the wackiness. The dying star's regular cycles of brightness fluctuation have changed, and now Betelgeuse has grown uncharacteristically bright. At the time of writing, it was sitting at 142 percent of its normal brightness. It's been fluctuating back and forth on a small scale but on a steady upward trend for months and hit a recent peak of 156...
  • Hubble Sees Red Supergiant Star Betelgeuse Recovering After Never-Seen-Before Titanic Eruption

    08/12/2022 10:24:50 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 19 replies
    ScitTechDaily ^ | AUGUST 12, 2022
    After analyzing data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and several other observatories, astronomers have concluded that the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse quite literally blew its top in 2019, losing a substantial part of its visible surface and producing a gigantic Surface Mass Ejection (SME). This is something never before seen in a normal star’s behavior. Credit: NASA, ESA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)Our Sun routinely blows off parts of its tenuous outer atmosphere, the corona, in an event known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). However, the Betelgeuse SME blasted off 400 billion times as much mass as a typical CME!...
  • Mystery Solved: Astronomers Unravel the Puzzle of Betelgeuse’s “Great Dimming”

    07/19/2021 9:09:01 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 28 replies
    https://scitechdaily.com ^ | July 19, 2021 | By HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS
    These images show the surface of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse during its unprecedented dimming, which happened in late 2019 and early 2020. The image on the far left, taken in January 2019, shows the star at its normal brightness, while the remaining images, from December 2019, January 2020, and March 2020, were all taken when the star’s brightness had noticeably dropped, especially in its southern region. Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al. ================================================================================== The star Betelgeuse became visibly darker in 2019 and 2020, puzzling astronomers; new images show that the star was partially concealed by a cloud of dust, solving...
  • The Red Hypergiant VY CMa Is Bigger Than Betelguese and Belching Out Vast Clouds of Dust

    03/06/2021 7:02:17 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 11 replies
    [I]n this case we're talking about the star VY Canis Majoris (or VY CMa for short). This ridiculously bloated red hypergiant is about 4,000 light years away in the constellation of Canis Major... VY CMa is an immense star, well over 2 billion kilometers wide. Observations of the star show that it is blasting out way too much infrared light for a star of its kind, which is a telltale sign that it's surrounded by dust. This is usually microscopic grains of rocky (silicate-laden) or carbonaceous (sooty) material around the star (so we call it circumstellar, which is just a...
  • Strangely Behaving Red Supergiant Betelgeuse Smaller and Closer Than First Thought

    10/17/2020 7:36:31 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 23 replies
    SciTechDaily ^ | October 17, 2020 | Australian National University
    “It’s burning helium in its core at the moment, which means it’s nowhere near exploding,” Dr. Joyce said. “We could be looking at around 100,000 years before an explosion happens.” Co-author Dr. László Molnár from the Konkoly Observatory?in Budapest says the study also revealed how big Betelgeuse is, and its distance from Earth. “The actual physical size of Betelgeuse has been a bit of a mystery — earlier studies suggested it could be bigger than the orbit of Jupiter. Our results say Betelgeuse only extends out to two thirds of that, with a radius 750 times the radius of the...
  • Betelgeuse Is Neither as Far Nor as Large as We Thought, And It's a Total Bummer

    10/16/2020 8:42:10 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 55 replies
    www.sciencealert.com ^ | MIKE MCRAE 16 OCTOBER 2020
    (ALMA - ESO/NAOJ/NRAO, E/O'Gorman/P.Kervella) ========================================================================= In the wake of recent fluctuations in Betelgeuse's brightness, astronomers have rigorously examined the star's vital statistics, and come up with a bit of a surprise. According to the team led by researchers at Australian National University (ANU), the results change a few important things about our favourite red giant. "The actual physical size of Betelgeuse has been a bit of a mystery – earlier studies suggested it could be bigger than the orbit of Jupiter," says astronomer László Molnár from the Konkoly Observatory in Hungary. "Our results say Betelgeuse only extends out to two...
  • The bizarre dimming of bright star Betelgeuse caused by giant stellar eruption

    08/14/2020 10:18:51 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 56 replies
    space,com ^ | 13 August 2020 | Mike Wall
    In the fall of 2019, Betelgeuse began dimming significantly, losing about two-thirds of its brightness by February. This dramatic dip spurred speculation that the star's demise may have been imminent — perhaps just weeks away. But the dramatic sky show didn't happen: Betelgeuse powered through the dimming episode and returned to its normal brightness by May of this year. The recovery sparked a new round of speculation, this time about the dimming's cause. Some scientists attributed the doldrums to a light-blocking dust cloud, for example, whereas others said big starspots on Betelgeuse's surface were likely to blame. A new study...
  • What Will Happen When Betelgeuse Explodes?

    03/23/2017 5:44:02 AM PDT · by C19fan · 53 replies
    Forbes ^ | March 22, 2017 | Ethan Siegel
    Every star will someday run out of fuel in its core, bringing an end to its run as natural source of nuclear fusion in the Universe. While stars like our Sun will fuse hydrogen into helium and then -- swelling into a red giant -- helium into carbon, there are other, more massive stars which can achieve hot enough temperatures to further fuse carbon into even heavier elements. Under those intense conditions, the star will swell into a red supergiant, destined for an eventual supernova after around 100,000 years or so. And the brightest red supergiant in our entire night...
  • Huge red star might explode soon and next few weeks are critical [Betelgeuse update]

    02/10/2020 10:33:13 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 96 replies
    CNET ^ | February 10, 2020 | Eric Mack
    Supergiant star Betelgeuse has been getting dimmer at an unprecedented pace over the past few months, leading some astronomers to wonder if it might be in the process of the collapse that precedes a supernova explosion. But there are other possible explanations, and we should have a better idea of what's happening to the massive star by the end of the month. Betelgeuse has no more than about 100,000 years left to burn and could start its death throes just about anytime between now and then. When it does go supernova, it's expected to result in a dramatic light show...
  • An 'unknown' burst of gravitational waves just lit up Earth's detectors

    01/15/2020 3:52:50 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 126 replies
    CNET ^ | 01/14/2020 | Jackson Ryan
    Earth's gravitational wave observatories -- which hunt for ripples in the fabric of space-time -- just picked up something weird. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo detectors recorded an unknown or unanticipated "burst" of gravitational waves on Jan. 14. The gravitational waves we've detected so far usually relate to extreme cosmic events, like two black holes colliding or neutron stars finally merging after being caught in a death spiral. Burst gravitational waves have not been detected before and scientists hypothesize they may be linked to phenomena such as supernova or gamma ray bursts, producing a tiny "pop" when...
  • Astronomers Detect a Burst of Gravitational Waves From The Direction of Betelgeuse

    01/20/2020 11:01:51 AM PST · by Red Badger · 87 replies
    www.sciencealert.com ^ | 20 JAN 2020 | EVAN GOUGH, UNIVERSE TODAY
    Gravitational waves are caused by calamitous events in the Universe. Neutron stars that finally merge after circling each other for a long time can create them, and so can two black holes that collide with each other. But sometimes there's a burst of gravitational waves that doesn't have a clear cause. One such burst was detected by LIGO/VIRGO on January 14, and it came from the same region of sky that hosts the star Betelgeuse. Yeah, Betelgeuse, aka Alpha Orionis. The star that has been exhibiting some dimming behaviour recently, and is expected to go supernova at some point in...
  • How Long Has It Been Since We Saw A Supernova?

    01/04/2020 8:50:56 PM PST · by BenLurkin · 52 replies
    Forbes ^ | 12/31/2019 | Kiona N. Smith
    Betelgeuse has gotten dramatically dimmer over the last few weeks, astronomers say the change probably isn’t a symptom of an impending stellar explosion. That’s good news for any planets in the star’s orbit... But it’s disappointing news for Earth-based astronomers and stargazers, who haven’t been able to watch the death of a star with their unaided eyes since 1987, and may not have another chance for centuries. In 1987, a supernova called SN 1987A, marked the death of a blue giant star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the dwarf galaxies that orbits the Milky Way. 168,000 years after...
  • Is Betelgeuse About To Explode?

    12/31/2019 10:26:42 AM PST · by jonatron · 110 replies
    Forbes ^ | 12/25/2019 | Ethan Siegel
    When you take a look at the stars in the night sky, they generally appear the same regardless of time. Only a small number of stars ever appear to change on human timescales, as most stars burn through their fuel very stably, with almost no variation in their continuous brightness. The few stars that do appear to change are either intrinsically variable, members of multi-star systems, or go through an enormous evolutionary change. When very massive stars get close to the end of their lives, they start varying by tremendous amounts, and do so with significant irregularity. At a critical...
  • A shift and acceleration coming in April[ Charismatic Caucus]

    03/26/2018 12:17:07 PM PDT · by Jedediah · 6 replies
    Bible ^ | Bible
    I saw a line between the month of march leading into April then Jesus on The throne as described in Ezekiel with the wheels within the wheels beneath him and The Spirit of The Lord in the wheels moving Him forward . Then I heard this word come forth . . . My kingdom has come upon the Earth now through my Chosen ones so get ready for a shift and acceleration in the spiritual realm for truly I AM about to shake all creation until all that is left is My Kingdom come. I saw many left behind as...
  • Amazing New Views of Betelgeuse Courtesy of ALMA

    06/30/2017 12:59:50 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 21 replies
    An angry monster lurks in the shoulder of the Hunter. We’re talking about the red giant star Betelgeuse, also known as Alpha Orionis in the constellation Orion. Recently, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) gave us an amazing view of Betelgeuse, one of the very few stars that is large enough to be resolved as anything more than a point of light. 650 light years distant, Betelgeuse is destined to live fast, and die young. The star is only eight million years old – young as stars go. Consider, for instance, our own Sun, which has been shining as a...
  • AMAZING NEW VIEWS OF BETELGEUSE COURTESY OF ALMA

    06/28/2017 7:08:31 AM PDT · by C19fan · 15 replies
    Universe Today ^ | June 27, 2017 | David Dickinson
    Just. Wow. An angry monster lurks in the shoulder of the Hunter. We’re talking about the red giant star Betelgeuse, also known as Alpha Orionis in the constellation Orion. Recently, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) gave us an amazing view of Betelgeuse, one of the very few stars that is large enough to be resolved as anything more than a point of light.
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- A 212-Hour Exposure of Orion

    11/22/2015 11:03:29 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 19 replies
    NASA ^ | November 23, 2015 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: The constellation of Orion is much more than three stars in a row. It is a direction in space that is rich with impressive nebulas. To better appreciate this well-known swath of sky, an extremely long exposure was taken over many clear nights in 2013 and 2014. After 212 hours of camera time and an additional year of processing, the featured 1400-exposure collage spanning over 40 times the angular diameter of the Moon emerged. Of the many interesting details that have become visible, one that particularly draws the eye is Barnard's Loop, the bright red circular filament arcing down...
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Orion Over and Under Tibet

    10/05/2015 3:44:49 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 12 replies
    NASA ^ | October 05, 2015 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: This night was so serene you could see Orion rise downwards. The unusual spectacle was captured in this single-exposure image, featuring a deep sky around the famous constellation of Orion that appeared both above -- and reflected in -- a peaceful lake in the Gyirong Valley of Tibet, China. Taken last year at this time, the three belt stars of Orion can be seen lined up almost vertically above and below the Himalayan Mountains. The complex Orion Nebula can be seen to the belt stars' right, while the red-glowing circular structure surrounding Orion is Barnard's Loop. Also, the bright...
  • Astroquizzical: What happens when Betelgeuse explodes?

    02/25/2015 6:57:23 AM PST · by C19fan · 31 replies
    Starts with a Bang! ^ | February 24, 2015 | Jillian Scudder
    Question: If Betelgeuse explodes right now, could we see it with naked eye? It is over 400 light years away, so you might think that people would see it long after it actually happens? Betelgeuse is already one of the brightest stars in the night sky, sitting somewhere around the 8th or 9th brightest star in the night sky. (These lists don’t include the Sun, which is somewhat obviously always the brightest object in the sky.) It sits in the constellation Orion, along with a number of other bright stars, and makes up the left hand shoulder of the warrior....