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Exactly how long it will take for that full process to happen is unknown researchers can make only approximate estimates using models of stellar evolution.
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That means it has begun nuclear fusion of helium in its core, creating oxygen and carbon and starting down the pathway to core collapse and eventual supernova detonation. Astronomers estimate that Betelgeuse is approximately 10 million years old, and it began expanding into a red giant 40,000 years ago. The way astronomers use them is quite different from the way we use those words in everyday conversation.Īs soon as we pick apart that term “soon,” the situation starts to look less dire. What the Betelgeuse-scare stories often gloss over is that “nearby” and “soon” are relative terms. Surely that would do some nasty stuff to us, right?īut there is a reason that our planet has not been destroyed yet, despite having loitered around the galaxy for some 4.5 billion years. That's about as bright as the Moon on a typical night, bright enough to cast dramatic shadows, bright enough to see clearly in the middle of the day.
#WILL BETELGEUSE TURN INTO A BLACK HOLE MOVIE#
(The movie Beetlejuice undoubtedly helped raise its profile as well.) When it explodes, it could reach a brightness in our sky of about magnitude -11. It has inspired a lot of astronomical scare-stories as a relatively nearby red giant star that is expected to explode soon as a powerful supernova. It is somewhat larger, more massive, more menacing. Of the two, Betelgeuse is more intriguing. The closest likely candidates are two bright red stars that are both prominent in the sky, and that are both coincidentally rather similar in distance: Antares in the constellation Scorpius and Betelgeuse in Orion. No nearby star is a supernova candidate either - not surprising, since stars massive enough to go supernova are few and far between. I'm talking about a nearby supernova (and mindful, too, that "disaster" literally means "bad star").įortunately (or unfortunately, if you are hoping for some really exciting destruction), our Sun will not, can not ever explode as a supernova. It's something that we know has happened in the past, possibly with significant impact on our planet, and there's nothing we can do to prevent the next one. But there's one disaster that falls into the sweet spot. Some of the scenarios are so unlikely that they are hardly worth considering - for instance, a stellar-mass black hole barreling straight toward our solar system. Some potential cosmic catastrophes are modest enough that we could potentially avert them - an asteroid on an Earth-collision path being a prime example. I wrote one of the first Armageddon-science articles, entitled "20 Ways the World Could End," which was published for the 20th anniversary of this magazine, and followed it with a sequel a decade later. They are also great for making you appreciate the delicate set of contingencies that allow us to exist right now, right here on Earth. Not because I'm particularly gloomy (according to my friends and family, I'm actually more of a goof), but because they are fabulous ways to illustrate the workings of the universe.
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I'm a longtime fan of cosmic disaster scenarios.