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There won’t be any danger to Earth from some 650 light years away, but the dying star will shine almost as brightly as the moon, visible even during the day for several months. When it finally dims it will become invisible to the naked eye. The hunter, known to humans for at least 30,000 years, will have lost a shoulder.Now some scientists are predicting that it could happen very soon, perhaps within the next few decades.
If Saio’s numbers are correct, then the star may have exhausted all its hydrogen and helium – the elements that drive nuclear fusion in our own sun – and may be burning its way through its store of carbon atoms. “We conclude that Betelgeuse should currently be in a late phase of the core carbon burning,” the paper notes. “After carbon is exhausted in the core, a core-collapse leading to a supernova explosion is expected in in a few tens [of] years.”
To be clear, most scientists assume a slightly smaller size for Betelgeuse, meaning it may have some way to go before a supernova event – perhaps 100,000 years, though that is still a blink of an eye in cosmic terms.Sign up to receive daily headline news from the Calgary Herald, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
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