In the universe, Red Giants like Betelgeuse is one of the biggest objects to be seen in the blackness of space. Stars live and die in the cosmos, but those few rare occasions getting lucky to see a red giant go boom is a rare lifetime event for anyone who catches the once in a lifetime event. Supernovas are significant because they release star stuff that becomes planets or becomes a black hole.
Recent observations made by astronomers on Betelgeuse show it dimming and this might be a sign that it will go supernova. Though it might be some phenomena or stage in its lifetime, that may last for more than a billion years. Or it might be similar to a teenager having a stellar tantrum, but this young star's tantrum is nothing to be trifled with.
The sun in the solar system itself will go through stages of a red giant eventually, but not for a long time. For red stars like Betelgeuse age is relatively young at 9 million years, our yellow sun is older. The reason red giants like it are so huge is that the hydrogen is getting burned off. Until it becomes a white dwarf or collapsed into a black hole after going supernova.
Astronomers like Ed Guinan has been observing Betelgeuse since the 1980s and cataloging his observations, with other astronomers equally interested in it. Since October this year, the red giant has been lessening the intensity and at 2.5 less the usual brightness. Red giants are called that because they are so red and can be seen with the right tools. Once the 9th celestial object that was brightest to human eyes, now it is the 23rd compared to other stars observed.
All this goings-on has drawn remarks from Ed Guinan, stresses the importance of Betelgeuse to astronomers. For the drastic dimming of the red giant, is very startling that hints at something about to happen. Call it the most stellar of light shows, that might be a spectacular sendoff that will be like a cosmic disco ball. With red giants as the huge stellar bodies, nothing can pierce the red brilliance and reveal what goes on underneath.
Experts and astronomers are thinking about a supernova event that might be the first recorded by modern instruments. Data from an actual supernova will be valuable for astrophysicists to study and confirmed in real-time not light and older photons and from another time.
Betelgeuse is 700 light-years away and one of the closest red giants in the Milky Way galaxy near the solar system. Compared to other stars, this is practically near this interstellar neighborhood. For sure Ed Guinan stressed that it might go supernova because at 9 million years these stars do not have long to go. But, if anyone expects it to happen soon, it will not for 200,000 to 300,000 years from now. If it goes supernova in this lifetime, then everyone will bear witness to how everything was created or destroyed.
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