Nearby Star is Getting Ready to Explode
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nearby Star is Getting Ready to Explode*
Thursday, June 13, 2009
Bye-bye, Betelgeuse?
The nearby, well-known and very bright star may soon explode in a
supernova, according to data released by U.C. Berkeley researchers Tuesday.
The red giant Betelgeuse, once so large it would reach out to Jupiter's
orbit if placed in our own solar system, has shrunk by 15 percent over
the past decade in a half, although it's just as bright as it's ever been.
"To see this change is very striking," said retired Berkeley physics
professor Charles Townes, who won the 1964 Nobel Prize for inventing the
laser. "We will be watching it carefully over the next few years to see
if it will keep contracting or will go back up in size."
Betelgeuse, whose name derives from Arabic, is easily visible in the
constellation Orion. It gave Michael Keaton's character his name in the
movie "Beetlejuice" and was the home system of Galactic President Zaphod
Beeblebrox in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Red giant stars are thought to have short, complicated and violent
lifespans. Lasting at most a few million years, they quickly burn out
their hydrogen fuel and then switch to helium, carbon and other elements
in a series of partial collapses, refuelings and restarts.
Betelgeuse, which is thought to be reaching the end of its lifespan, may
be experiencing one of those collapses as it switches from one element
to another as nuclear-fusion fuel.
"We do not know why the star is shrinking," said Townes' Berkeley
colleague Edward Wishnow. "Considering all that we know about galaxies
and the distant universe, there are still lots of things we don't know
about stars, including what happens as red giants near the ends of their
lives."
Eventually, the huge star may become a nesting doll of elements, with a
mixed iron-nickel core surrounded by onion-like layers of silicon,
oxygen, neon, carbon, helium and hydrogen.
As the iron fuel runs out, it may explode into a supernova, blasting
newly created elements out into the universe and leaving behind a small,
incredibly dense neutron star.
All the heavier elements in the universe — including all the oxygen,
carbon and iron in your own body — were created in such a way.
It's possible we're observing the beginning of Betelgeuse's final
collapse now.
If so, the star, which is 600 light-years away, will already have
exploded — and we'll soon be in for a spectacular, and perfectly safe,
interstellar fireworks show.