Betelgeuse: Difference between revisions
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{{Cquote|Experts trace the name back to the Arabic ''yad al-jawza'''. A transcription error, confusing the initial letters b and y (in Arabic, ba and ya) because of their similar shape, dates back to the 13th century when a star table by John of London named the star Bedalgeuze.||| Robert Lebling (2010) "[https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201005/arabic.in.the.sky.htm Arabic in the Sky] Saudi Aramco World}}
=== Supernova explosion ===
{{Cquote|Betelgeuse, the closest red giant to Earth, has long been understood to move between brighter and dimmer in 400-day cycles. But from late 2019 to early 2020, it underwent what astrophysicists called "the great dimming", as a dust cloud obscured our view of the star. Now, it is glowing at 150% of its normal brightness, and is cycling between brighter and dimmer at 200 days intervals. Research concludes that it will be five to 10 years before Betelgeuse return to its normal 400-day cycles.
One of the coolest things about Betelgeuse is that we're watching the final stages of big star evolution play out almost in real time for us. Observing its behaviour gives important insights into the behaviour of red giants before supernova explosions. When it does eventually explode, it could -- over the course of a week- grow so bright that it will be visible during daylight and cast shadows at night. There are records from ancient Egypt of what appears to be a star exploding as a supernova. The Egyptians described the appearance of a "second sun" in the sky.
Betelgeuse is expected to explode some time in the next 10,000 to 100,000 years. While Betelgeuse is very unlikely to explode in our lifetimes, "we don't know", says Dr Sara Webb, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, "theoretically it probably hasn’t, but theoretically it could have exploded and we wouldn’t know."||| Helen Sullivan (2023) "[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/may/26/its-new-territory-why-is-betelgeuse-is-glowing-so-brightly-and-behaving-so-strangely ‘It’s new territory’: why is Betelgeuse glowing so brightly and behaving so strangely?"] The Guardian}}
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