ESO telescope sees surface of dim Betelgeuse
phys.org
phys.org
Here is the direct YT link (from your article): https://youtu.be/o1ls7Gr9LTE
This truly seems like a completely massive change in the observable characteristics of the star especially on such a short timeframe. 36% dimmer in 12 months? I'll be really interested to see if we can find out for sure what's happening.
Even now, when I saw a pic of Orion after following links from the article, I again couldn’t help but think about how awesome the universe is, and how whatever is going on out there just dwarfs our petty, shitty little Earthy problems.
A newer favorite of mine is Scorpius (visible now at my latitude ~fivein the morning when I walk my dogs); mostly because of Antares, one of the visibly reddest stars in the sky. (And for similar reason, I'm a fan of Aldebaran/Taurus.)
Rigel and Betelgeuse, the two brightest stars in Orion are also easily recognizable. They are situated diagonally opposite to each other in the constellation. While Rigel shines bright white, Betelgeuse is distinctly reddish. When I later learnt about red giant stars, the reddish hue of Betelgeuse made even more sense. And then if we imagine a straight line that roughly passes through the three stars in Orion's belt and extend it eastwards, the imaginary line ends up in the vicinity of Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky.
When I emerge myself into space I feel at peace and I can sit by a lake not too far from here for hours watching it and the rest of the stars :)
I really need to buy a telescope soon.
We've decided if Betelgeuse goes away we won't amputate to follow suit...
BTW, Betelgeuse is more known as Orion's left shoulder.
Granted, that object would likely need to be both dark and travelling through interstellar space, two things that would by themselves be noteworthy. Unless it's something much, much closer and in the orbit of our own star... I wonder if they're ruled out Kuiper Belt objects or comets yet?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Not sure what a "convection zone" means. Would it be kinda like the Jupiter red spot?
Wikipedia says...
"Jupiter has powerful storms, often accompanied by lightning strikes. The storms are a result of moist convection in the atmosphere connected to the evaporation and condensation of water. They are sites of strong upward motion of the air, which leads to the formation of bright and dense clouds."
...which I read as it is also a convection phenomenon, but due to very different underlying forces, of course. Not that I knew that :)
It's massive and very violent! It might be that this violence is causing the dimming by discharging massive amounts of dust and gas.
I hope it's a prelude to fireworks but that is unfortunately not probable.
Our sun is much more stable.
I mean, you're probably correct, but given we have precisely one datapoint for life, it's a bit much to extrapolate further - there might be aeons-old silicon-skinned space whales congregating around Betelgeuse for their thrice giga-millennial spawning season, or something... . Probably not.
- ed
'thrice kilo or mega millennial' seems a bit less unlikely!
But you are right, nothing can be ruled out ;)
But you'd be stuck there forever, right? Diffraction means that the shadow only goes out so far before you're being cooked again by one form of particle or another.
One last fun fact: Betelgeuse is about 125,000 times brighter than the Sun in absolute luminosity.
The meaning of the so called "relativity of simultaneity" appears to me to be that you just shouldn't talk about simultaneous events with spacelike separation.
A back cover blurb I wouldn't mind picking up! If something like this is already written I want to know.
I wonder if it would be something to do with neutron stars or magnetars?
Theoretically, you could place a relatively small, dense object fairly close to Betelgeuse and protect your entire stellar neighborhood. I haven't done the math, but I suspect it would have to be so small and dense that it would be a black hole.
You'd probably be better off just trying to shield your planet from whatever lesser energies eventually arrive.
I don't know the observational wavelength for the images in the article (VLT-SPHERE has filters that go from ~1-2 microns), but if the image were in H-band (1.6 micron wavelength) the resolution of the 8.2 meter telescope is ~49 milliarcsecond, putting this image just at the formal resolution limit. Still, quite impressive stuff.
So from the list on wikipedia, I guess they could just do that one star, and didn't learn very much beyond the radius?
What's the hottest results in the field of spatially resolved stellar observations?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson_stellar_interferomet...
What % of material is then captured by other forming/formed stars? Doesnt it just end up in interstellar space ?
Maybe, not destroy life or anything, but increase radiation or something else harmful. In other words, should we start running ;) ?
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/what-will-a-be...
There’s no need to worry about the stellar explosion. A supernova has to happen extremely close to Earth for the radiation to harm life — perhaps as little as several dozen light-years, according to some estimates. Betelgeuse is far outside that range, with recent studies suggesting it sits roughly 724 light-years away, well outside the danger zone.
But the supernova could still impact Earth in some surprising ways. For example, Howell points out that many animals use the moon for navigation and are confused by artificial lights. Adding a second object as bright as the moon could be disruptive.