Someday a supernova explosion will disintegrate Betelgeuse, generating an immense cloud of debris that will expand at a very high speed. Only a tiny, ultra-dense collapsed part of the core will remain of the progenitor star: a neutron star of about 1.5 solar masses. The graphic simulation illustrates the initial moments of the explosion (the actual brightness of the event is quadrillions of times higher than that represented here) [image: Michele Diodati]

All About Betelgeuse. Live Fast, Die Young

Betelgeuse is going through the final stages of its existence. In an age that we cannot predict with certainty, the supergiant will face a fatal supernova explosion that will disintegrate it, leaving behind only a tiny and ultra-dense neutron star. Pending that great celestial spectacle, many questions remain unanswered. One of them concerns the high rotational velocity of Betelgeuse, which a group of researchers tried to explain with a suggestive hypothesis — an act of stellar cannibalism that occurred around 100,000 years ago

The physical parameters of Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is currently in the red supergiant phase, a typical evolutionary stage of stars with masses between 10 and 40 solar masses, characterized by an enormous expansion of the stellar envelope in response to changes in energy generation processes that have begun exiting the main sequence. There is a fairly broad consensus among astronomers that Betelgeuse is now ascending the supergiant branch for the first…