Going ‘Nova: The Dying Breaths of a Star
Scientists have modelled the supernova that results as a pulsating supergiant’s life ends, with the potential of showing us what is happening with Betelgeuse.
Whilst astronomers are still diligently studying Betelgeuse with the hope of discovering what is causing the red supergiant’s surface to rapidly dim, physicists from UC Santa Barbara have devised a model to show the process that a dying star undergoes as it reaches the end of its life and goes supernova.
When a star the size of Betelgeuse — ten times that of the Sun — reaches the end of its life cycle its ‘death’ is marked by a spectacular and powerful explosion. These supernova events can be so luminous that they often outshine the entire light output of the galaxy in which the star sits. Betelgeuse’s dipping brightness has some astronomers theorising that this is the process which it is currently undergoing, but there are other explanations currently being posited.
It is very probable that Betelgeuse will go supernova within the next million years, sooner if this group of astronomers are correct, resulting in a spectacular display that will be visible from Earth, even during daylight.
Betelgeuse is a member of a family of stars calling pulsating semiregular variable stars. Even before this recent period of extreme dimming was observed…
