What Will Happen When Betelgeuse Goes Supernova?
Orion the Hunter is probably the most famous constellation in our skies. Easily identifiable by searching for the three bright stars forming his belt, one star in particular has drawn the attention of those who watch the night skies. The spectacular star sitting at Orion’s right shoulder is called Betelgeuse.
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant doomed to a short life and a violent death — a death which is, in cosmic terms, imminent. It’s one of the largest stars we can see, and the seventh largest in the whole Milky Way at nearly 900 times the size of the Sun. It’s so enormous that if it was at the centre of our solar system, it would completely engulf Mars and its edge would be close to Jupiter’s orbit. It’s big.
Only 13% of the energy emitted from the red supergiant is visible light. If we could see the remaining 87%, it would easily outshine every star in the sky except for the Sun — and it’s already (on average — it fluctuates) one of the ten brightest stars. If the Sun and Betelgeuse were the same distance from us, we’d see Betelgeuse shine 100,000 times more brightly.
