The star Betelgeuse, which suddenly began to dim a few years ago, could explode and soon become a supernova, according to a forecast derived from recent studies of the celestial body based on its pulsations.
The red brilliant, a supergiant located in the constellation Orion and 15 to 20 times more massive than the Sun, unexpectedly dimmed in 2019. Then, earlier this year, it not only returned to its brightest peak, but passed to shine one and a half times brighter than usual. This gave rise to speculation about whether such changes were indicative of an early death or simply oscillations that occur ‘with old age’, according to Science Alert.
Now, a new study from researchers at Tohoku University, Japan, and the University of Geneva, Switzerland, has determined that fluctuations in the brightness of Betelgeuse, just 650 light-years from Earth, point to the early death of humanity. star.
Betelgeuse, an ‘O’ type star, appeared only 10 million years ago, a time that on the scale of the Universe is considered negligible. However, astronomers believe that its days are numbered. How many you have left will depend on many factors.
One of them is the actual size of the supergiant, which was the subject of controversy for much of the 20th century. Previous measurements have shown that a star of that magnitude could cool down enough to explode within tens of thousands of years, but the new study points to not thousands, but just tens of years.
The outer layers of Betelgeuse, like those of many other stars, pulsate, that is, they contract and expand. Those periods last approximately 2,200 to 420 days each.
The scientists involved in the latest study have suggested that the thermodynamics underlying the fluctuations of supergiants like Betelgeuse are more complex than that of most other stars.
It was previously believed that a shorter period of radial pulsation was the main one for this star. The recent study confirms the possibility of a longer pulse, which would be related to the thermodynamics of the star.
“We conclude that Betelgeuse must currently be in a late phase (or near the end) of core carbon burning. After that carbon is used up, a core collapse occurs, leading to a supernova explosion. It is estimated that this will happen in a few tens of years,” the scientists concluded in their study, published on arXiv. with RT