Is the red giant Betelgeuse ready to explode?

the Betelgeuse It is a red giant with such a large diameter that if it were in the center of the solar system, its surface would reach the orbit of Jupiter, “swallowing” all the inner planets. It is located 640 light-years away in the constellation of Orion and is the ninth brightest star in the sky. It is only 10 million years old, but its large mass has led to its rapid development and it is believed that within the next few thousand years it will explode as a supernova.

a A recent study But it hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, suggests the colossal explosion will happen in a few decades. Researchers in Japan and Switzerland re-evaluated the fluctuations in the star’s brightness, and concluded that it represented the final stage of Betelgeuse’s life.

Earlier in the year, the Betelgozi’s brightness had increased by a factor of one and a half. What we do know for sure is that at the end of his life. When this happens depends on several factors.

One is its actual size, something that has been in dispute for decades. The most recent measurements show that they tend toward the more conservative estimates. Fluctuations in brightness reveal two major recurring periods, lasting about 2,200 and 420 days. The shortest period is the dominant period in the star’s “heartbeat”.

The star’s outer layers seem to be drifting away from each other as its mass collects inward, speeding up the reactions, suggesting we might see a supernova in a matter of decades rather than thousands of years. If the model is correct, we should see Betelgeuse overtake all other stars by the middle of the century, before it disappears from the constellation forever.

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