Red supergiant Betelgeuse, near us, could explode in a few decades and become a supernova

Many scientists have a chance before the red supergiant Betelgeuse erupts into a supernova. That could be decades from now.

Here's What We Know

The star is located in the constellation Orion at a distance of only 650 light years from Earth, which is very close by the standards of the Universe. Betelgeuse is in the spectral class O. It's about to go supernova, but the timing depends on many factors. One of them is age. But scientists are still at odds about how old the red giant is.

Astronomers have been watching Betelgeuse closely for four years. The star has attracted extra attention after a sudden drop in brightness. The event has even been given its own name, the Great Dimming.

Betelgeuse is a relatively small star of spectral type O. It is supposed to explode into a supernova in tens of thousands of years, but this may happen much earlier. New evidence suggests that the red giant may be much more massive than is commonly thought and that it will be 30-50 years before it explodes into a supernova.

The brightness of Betelgeuse varies in two periods of 420 and 2200 days. This means that the star's radius may be 800 to 900 and 1300 times that of the Sun. Thus, the red giant is due to go supernovae after 2050.

Source: Science Alert
Image: Ciriosmos