Often, our imagination about big, really big space objects stops at the Sun. And why blame anyone? The Sun is huge. Earth weighs 1000 trillion tonnes. Still, Sun is 13 lakh times bigger than the Earth. Now imagine a star 1400 times bigger than the Sun. That's our dear Betelguese! And scientists think that Betelguese is about to explode!
Betelguese is a star in the Orion constellation and is one of the brightest objects in the sky. However, Betelgeuse has fallen rapidly down the list of brightest objects in the night sky.
Why Betelguese may explode?
Like humans, stars also have a limited life span. The star burns the super-hot fuel to send enormous amount of enrgey into space. But as fuel within the star begins to deplete (over billions of years) the star goes on dimming. And that's what is happening with Betelguese.
Size of Sun with respect to Betelgeuse: The Sun is a tiny speck at the left-upper corner of the image while the red region shows just a part of Betelgeuse
But, before they spend their fuel and turn into something else, stars have one trick up their sleeve. A huge, superhuge explosion. This is called a Supernova.
A Supernova is mother of (most) space explosions and sends out unimaginable amount of energy before finally dying out. If a star is close enough, the supernova can be seen with a naked eye and what's more, even in the day sky.
So what's cooking in Betelguese?
Scientists knew for a while that Betelguese was dimming, but observatories worldwide have recorded a drastic decrease in Betelguese's luminescence since October this year. This, scientists say, are sure-shot signs that Betelguese is approaching its end.
So will we get to see this in sky anytime soon?
Probably. Probably not. There is a catch. Betelguese is 600 light-years away from Earth. That means light takes 600 years to travel from Betelguese to Earth. This means that if something happens to Betelguese today, it will take 600 years for us to know this.
But...
It is also possible that Betelguese may have exploded in middle ages sometime. You know, just 600 years ago. And if it really did, then we may soon get to see a fabulous event not witnessed by anyone in modern times.
Keep your fingers crossed...or eyes at the sky.
