Betelgeuse Betelgeuse Betelgeuse

[Blues Man]

I hope to hell this happens in my lifetime.

The Orion constellation is one of the most well known in the winter sky over the US and has been an important constellation in almost all ancient cultures. It would be amazing to see this largest star in that iconic constellation go super nova

Odd supergiant star Betelgeuse is brightening up. Is it about to go supernova?

'When it happens, the star will become as bright as the full moon, except that it will be concentrated in a single point.'

www.space.com

 

[luiza]

It's size is breath taking .Difficult to conceptualise .
Thought they were rather backward when I last visited .

Betelgeuse is a star that is approximately 1,000 times wider than Earth1. Its diameter is 141,863 times larger than the diameter of the Earth . This means that you could fit about one million Sun-sized stars in just one Betelgeuse . The star is 548 light-years from Earth , and its radius is 764 times the radius of the Sun

 

[Oddball]

I hope to hell this happens in my lifetime.

The Orion constellation is one of the most well known in the winter sky over the US and has been an important constellation in almost all ancient cultures. It would be amazing to see this largest star in that iconic constellation go super nova

Odd supergiant star Betelgeuse is brightening up. Is it about to go supernova?

'When it happens, the star will become as bright as the full moon, except that it will be concentrated in a single point.'

www.space.com

If we can see it, that means it already has done so a loooooong time ago.

 

[Blues Man]

If we can see it, that means it already has done so a loooooong time ago.

Yeah I know but it's easier to talk about it in the present

 

[Meister]

Orion is the coolest place to use a telescope in the winter. The Running Man Nebula is spectacular.
Using an 8" telescope it brings it out crisp and bright.
Betelgeuse is not the only super giant that Orion is sporting.
Rigel is a blue super giant in Orion.
Red is cool and Blue is hot.

 

[Oddball]

 

[toobfreak]

I hope to hell this happens in my lifetime.

Don't hold your breath. The lives of stars are very very long and Betelgeuse likely has thousands if not hundreds of thousands of years before it finally explodes. It is rather difficult to grasp just how big Betelgeuse really is. There are few known stars that are bigger. Here is an idea:

Here is the Earth in comparison to Jupiter and our Sun.

Now here is the Sun in comparison to the star Pollux in Gemini.

Now here is Pollux in comparison to the star Rigel, the left foot of Orion:

And finally, here is the size of Rigel in comparison to Betelgeuse:

When it finally becomes time for Betelgeuse to go, it will enter a severely unstable, oscillating phase. Right now, its variations are not even to barely detectable to the trained naked eye observer.

 

[toobfreak]

Betelgeuse is not the only super giant that Orion is sporting.

The entire Orion region is part of the Orion OB Complex. OB stars are the largest and shortest lived like Betelgeuse. Here is a picture of Orion showing the outer shell of an expanding gas bubble expanding out from the general region of the Orion Nebula where a star like Betelgeuse exploded long ago. It is the pressure shock front of these expanding shells which trigger the collapse and compression of interstellar hydrogen gas clouds when they are hit by the pressure wave which leads to the formation of new stars like the Sun. Betelgeuse is the bright red star seen towards the upper left.

 

[22lcidw]

The entire Orion region is part of the Orion OB Complex. OB stars are the largest and shortest lived like Betelgeuse. Here is a picture of Orion showing the outer shell of an expanding gas bubble expanding out from the general region of the Orion Nebula where a star like Betelgeuse exploded long ago. It is the pressure shock front of these expanding shells which trigger the collapse and compression of interstellar hydrogen gas clouds when they are hit by the pressure wave which leads to the formation of new stars like the Sun. Betelgeuse is the bright red star seen towards the upper left.



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That seems to make us minor. Very minor. Yet there is life here. For what it's worth.

 

[ReinyDays]

For what it's worth ... Betelgeuse is classified as a semi-regular variable star ... and more "semi" than "regular" ... if you get my drift ...

 

[BackAgain]

If we can see it, that means it already has done so a loooooong time ago.

But if it hasn’t happened yet, humans are in for a long ass wait.