Orion is one of the famous constellations, which emphasizes the figure of a hunter. If you’ve looked at Orion recently, it seems a bit off. Betelgeuse is located relatively near our solar system, about 725 light-years away. It has swelled itself to a size that if replaced with the sun in our solar system, its outer surface would extend past the solar system. The giant red star Betelgeuse, which marks the hunter’s right shoulder, is the dimmest it’s been in almost a century. Betelgeuse is usually the tenth-brightest star in the night sky and, after Rigel, the second-brightest in the constellation of Orion. It’s one of the closest red supergiants and it’s one that we can get an immensely good and clear look at.
A drastic dimming was observed in 2019 and earlier 2020, of one of the brightest stars in the night sky, a colossus, Betelgeuse. By mid-February 2020, this giant star had lost more than two-thirds of its brilliance. The chronicle of Orion is conspicuously different with Betelgeuse very vague. The thing which is unusual for one of the sky’s most prominent points of light to fade so noticeably, prompting scientists to consider the possibility that something more exciting could be about to happen.
Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its life cycle when it will use up its nuclear fuel and explode, relatively soon in cosmic terms, in an event known as a supernova. The star might explode in a supernova before our eyes. Another speculation is that there was a giant dust cloud in the way. Red supergiants are known for their “pulsations”—meaning they regularly throw off their outer layers. This material is ejected out into space. Since it is no longer aflame, as it was while on the star, it cools and forms a cloud of fine rubble that astronomers refer to as “dust”. The star that’s 20 times the size of our Sun expelled a massive amount of hot plasma, which turned into dust grains as it cooled. The dust cloud blocked out nearly a quarter of the monster star’s surface from Earth’s view.
Betelgeuse might explode and die violently. It might be briefly glowing brighter than the full moon before vanishing from our night sky forever. As massive stars near the end of their lives, they experience insane and violent mass loss. The star will most likely explode within the next million years, and perhaps as soon as 100,000 years from now. Now the scientists are curious about what other facts that Betelgeuse has in store for them as well as us.
Read another article on Betelgeuse- Betelgeuse to go Supernova? – Final stage of life cycle
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