Is Betelgeuse About to Go Supernova?

Betelguese is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, but in 2019 it dimmed -- a lot. Learn what researchers think caused this and what it could mean in today's episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio Pay
brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum. Here it's been called one of
the most famous stars of all time. Beetlejuice, yes like
the movie, but spelled differently, is part of the well
known Orion constellation and, as usually the tenth brightest star
in the heavens visible to the naked eye. We spoke

(00:25):
via email with Andy Howell, staff astronomer at the Los
Cumbrous Observatory and a physicist at the University of California,
Santa Barbara. He said, Beetle Juice over time has been
more famous than Mickey Mouse or any human alive today.
That's because, over hundreds of thousands of years, our human
nighttime entertainment was looking up at the night sky. But

(00:48):
in October of twenty nineteen, Beetlejuice mysteriously began to dim.
It's drop in brilliance was apparent even to casual observers.
Astronomers were bewildered by its sudden shift. Some suspected the
Beetle Juice was running out of fuel and perhaps going supernova.
Stars that go supernova create the most powerful explosions that

(01:09):
occur in space. However, more recent research indicates that Beetle
Juice is not necessarily on the verge of death. It
may simply have produced a debris field of sorts that
temporarily blocked it's incredible brightness. How Will explained Beetle Juice
is a red supergiant star about twelve times the mass
of the Sun, but a whopping nine hundred times the diameter.

(01:33):
That means that if Beetlejuice were where the Sun is,
it would easily swallow Earth and extend out to beyond
the orbit of Jupiter. He adds that red supergiants are
stars at the end of their lives, after they've fused
all the hydrogen in their cores into helium. As they
burn heavier and heavier elements, their cores contract and their
outer layers puff up to extraordinary dimensions. Beetle Juice has

(01:57):
always been known for its variable brightness. Generally, these fluctuations
occur semi regularly and only in modest amounts. Howell told
us that this happens because it pulsates as its stellar
atmosphere turns like a pot of boiling water, tossing around
huge blobs of material. But this more noticeable and sustained
dimming was a bit different. We also spoke via email

(02:21):
with Outward Guynen and astrophysics and planetary science professor at Villanova.
He said, the cause of the dimming is under discussion
and argument. The dimming could be due to the ejection
of gas that cool to dust and block the star's light.
On the other hand, the recent dimming, called the Great
Dimming or Great fainting, occurred at the time expected on
the four thirty day periodicity, so in this case would

(02:44):
be related to a cooling caused by pulsation or the
presence of a super large convection cell. Continuing observations should
answer this question soon. By April, the star had returned
to its normal brightness. But although Beetlejuice is recent demming
doesn't seem to indicate its eminent death. Its end is

(03:05):
coming someday, I will explained. Beetlejuice is going to explode
one day as a supernova. That could happen tomorrow, or
it could be in a hundred thousand years. We can't tell.
But when it does, it will be spectacular. It could
get as bright as the quarter moon, so bright you
could read by it at night. It will stay really
bright for months, and you should even be able to

(03:27):
see it in the daytime for about a year. Supernova
in the past certainly left profound impressions on humans. Chinese
astronomers documented a supernova from the year ten forty, and
it resulted in the crab Nebula, one of the more
famous bodies in the night sky. Howell said, sadly, we
haven't had a supernova in our galaxy witnessed by humans

(03:49):
in more than four hundred years. Just as Galileo was
perfecting the telescope in sixteen o four, one supernova happened
and he was able to witness it and lecture about it.
How actually attended a conference celebrating the four anniversary of
the supernova that Galileo saw. It was held partly in
Galileo's house and partly in that lecture hall where he

(04:09):
taught students. Howell said, these events are so astounding, humans
find a way to remember them and keep talking about
them for hundreds or thousands of years. Guynan too, hopes
that he's around to witness what's sure to be a
thrilling spectacle. He's been carrying out photometry of beetle juice
for more than forty years, and he's continually fascinated, in

(04:30):
part because it's so hard to predict what this strange
and mysterious star will do next. He said, Beetle Juice
is a huge, unstable star on the verge of becoming
upright supernova. Even though the odds of seeing this happen
in my lifetime are very very low, I nevertheless always
keep an eye on it, just in case, on a
long shot, it goes supernova. I would love to see this.

(04:53):
If you'd like to take a gander at Beetle Juice
for yourself, Howell told us how to find it. Quote,
just for three close, equally spaced stars, they're unique in
all the sky, and that makes up the belt of Orion.
There are four bright stars above and below those forming
a rectangle that make up the shoulders and legs of Orion.

(05:14):
If you're in the northern hemisphere. The upper left star,
which for Oriyan would be his right shoulder, is Beetle Cheese.
You can tell because it's red and bright. Today's episode
was written by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang.
For more on this and lots of other stellar topics,
visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production

(05:36):
of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts My heart Radio, visit
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