Betelgeuse illustration. Credit: NASA, ESA, and E. Wheatley (STScI)
It might be another 100,000 years up until the huge red star Betelgeuse passes away in an intense surge, according to a brand-new research study by a worldwide group of scientists.
The research study, led by Dr. Meridith Joyce from The Australian National University (ANU), not just offers Betelgeuse a brand-new lease on life, however reveals it is both smaller sized and closer to Earth than formerly believed.
Dr. Joyce states the supergiant — which belongs to the Orion constellation — has actually long amazed researchers. But recently, it’s been acting oddly.
“It’s normally one of the brightest stars in the sky, but we’ve observed two drops in the brightness of Betelgeuse since late 2019,” Dr. Joyce stated.
“This triggered speculation it might be ready to blow up. But our research study uses a various description.
“We know the first dimming event involved a dust cloud. We found the second smaller event was likely due to the pulsations of the star.”
The scientists had the ability to utilize hydrodynamic and seismic modeling for more information about the physics driving these pulsations — and get a clearer concept of what stage of its life Betelgeuse remains in.
According to co-author Dr. Shing-Chi Leung from The University of Tokyo, the analysis “confirmed that pressure waves — essentially, sound waves-were the cause of Betelgeuse’s pulsation.”
“It’s burning helium in its core at the moment, which means it’s nowhere near exploding,” Dr. Joyce stated.
“We could be looking at around 100,000 years before an explosion happens.”
Co-author Dr. László Molnár from the Konkoly Observatory?in Budapest states the research study likewise exposed how huge Betelgeuse is, and its range from Earth.
“The real physical size of Betelgeuse has actually been a little a secret — earlier research studies recommended it might be larger than the orbit of Jupiter. Our outcomes state Betelgeuse just extends out to 2 thirds of that, with a radius 750 times the radius of the sun,” Dr. Molnár stated.
“Once we had the physical size of the star, we were able to determine the distance from Earth. Our results show it’s a mere 530 light years from us — 25 percent closer than previously thought.”
The great news is Betelgeuse is still too far from Earth for the ultimate surge to have a substantial effect here.
“It’s still a really big deal when a supernova goes off. And this is our closest candidate. It gives us a rare opportunity to study what happens to stars like this before they explode,” Dr. Joyce stated.
The research study was moneyed by The Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo, and helped with by the ANU Distinguished Visitor’s program. It included scientists from the United States, Hungary, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, along with Australia and Japan.
The research study has actually been released in The Astrophysical Journal.
Reference: “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: New Mass and Distance Estimates for Betelgeuse through Combined Evolutionary, Asteroseismic, and Hydrodynamic Simulations with MESA” by Meridith Joyce, Shing-Chi Leung, László Molnár, Michael Ireland, Chiaki Kobayashi and Ken’ichi Nomoto, 13 October 2020, The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abb8db
