the red giant star Betelgeuse, also known as Alpha Orionis in the constellation
Orion. Recently, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) gave us an amazing
view of Betelgeuse, one of the very few stars that is large enough to be resolved
as anything more than a point of light. Located 650 light years distant, Betelgeuse
is destined to live fast, and die young. The star is only eight million years old
– young as stars go. Consider, for instance, our own Sun, which has been shining
as a Main Sequence star for more than 500 times longer at 4.6 billion years – and
already, the star is destined to go supernova at anytime in the next few thousand
years or so, again, in a cosmic blink of an eye.
- A Big Bang
- supernova.JPG (32.6 KiB) Viewed 1185 times