Between December and January, a distant star known as Betelgeuse began dimming rapidly, leaving astronomers questioning whether the star, which is 725 lightyears from Earth, was ready to explode. In December, Betelgeuse went from one of the top 10 brightest stars visible to the naked eye to the 21st in January – of roughly 5,000 which can be seen.
The dimming suggested it was expected to supernova. Stars supernova when they are at the end of their lives having run out of fuel after millions of years.
However, the star has now regained some of its brightness, prompting an investigation from NASA’s Hubble Telescope.
The space agency revealed the star ejected hot material from its core, which formed around Betelgeuse.
This in turn led to the perceived dimming of the star, at least from Earth’s perspective.
Andrea Dupree, associate director of the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), Cambridge, Massachusetts, said: “With Hubble, we see the material as it left the star’s visible surface and moved out through the atmosphere, before the dust formed that caused the star to appear to dim.
“We could see the effect of a dense, hot region in the southeast part of the star moving outward.
“This material was two to four times more luminous than the star’s normal brightness.
“And then, about a month later, the south part of Betelgeuse dimmed conspicuously as the star grew fainter.
“We think it is possible that a dark cloud resulted from the outflow that Hubble detected. Only Hubble gives us this evidence that led up to the dimming.”
However, this is possibly not the end of the story and the mass ejection may be a sign that Betelgeuse is set to supernova after all.
Stars supernova when they are at the end of their lives having run out of fuel after millions of years.
When they do, they implode, collapsing in on themselves under their gravitational force before a huge explosion occurs.
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And with Betelgeuse being an ageing star, it could explode yet, claimed Dr Dupree, although she conceded this is difficult to judge.
She said: “No one knows what a star does right before it goes supernova, because it’s never been observed.
“Astronomers have sampled stars maybe a year ahead of them going supernova, but not within days or weeks before it happened.
“But the chance of the star going supernova anytime soon is pretty small.”
If, hypothetically, Betelgeuse were to supernova, it will be brighter than any star implosion ever observed from Earth, dwarfing that of the Kepler’s Star supernova.
Kepler’s Star produced a visible supernova in 1604, producing a bright enough light which was visible during the day time for three weeks.
However, Betelgeuse would outshine Kepler’s Star, according to Daniel Brown, a lecturer in astronomy at Nottingham Trent University.
Mr Brown has said: “If [Betelgeuse supernova] did occur, it would become the brightest supernova ever observed.
“In a matter of days, it would become as bright as the full moon, be visible during day time and be bright enough at night to cast shadows on Earth.
“Betelgeuse would then start a phase of final, rapid dimming and again reach its current brightness level after possibly three years.”
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