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Asked by anon-251974 on 28 Apr 2020.
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Sheila Kanani answered on 28 Apr 2020:
If Betelgeuse explodes, or goes supernova, studies have shown it will shine as bright as the half-Moon for more than three months, and you could even see it in the daytime for roughly a year after the explosion occurs!
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Ry Cutter answered on 28 Apr 2020:
In addition to Sheila’s answer,
Betelguese is about 643 light years away from us. This means it takes light 643 years to reach us! Here’s the thing though, we think the supernova can happen soon, but that means in millions of years (instead of Billions like other stars!)
Because that million is so much bigger than the 643, we can assume it hasn’t exploded yet. This means it’s unlikely we’ll see it go supernova in our lifetime, but that doesn’t mean we definitely won’t! I’m certainly hoping I get to see it.
As a note of unique things in our universe that we’re lucky to see. Saturn’s rings are temporary, we think they can only last about 150 million years. That means the chances of you being alive to see them are only a few percent! I think that’s pretty cool 😀
Brilliant Question,
Ry
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anon answered on 28 Apr 2020:
It might have already exploded for all we know, as Ry says it will take 643 years for the light to reach us. We simply don’t have enough observations to make an accurate prediction – more accurate than “maybe tomorrow, maybe in a million years” that is.
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Susan Cartwright answered on 28 Apr 2020:
It could happen, but it is probably not “likely”.
Betelgeuse WILL go supernova someday. It is presently a red supergiant, which means that it has left the main sequence and is no longer powered by hydrogen fusion in its central core. This does imply that it is more than halfway through its life, and massive stars have lifetimes which are short by astronomical standards. However, “short by astronomical standards” still means several million years.
Massive stars go through several stages after they leave the main sequence, fusing successively hydrogen ouside the core, helium, carbon, oxygen, neon, magnesium and silicon. Each of these stages generates less energy per kilogram of material (because the mass differences get steadily smaller) and therefore lasts for a shorter period of time: the final stage of fusing silicon to iron lasts only a few days. If we knew what is powering Betelgeuse now, we would have a much better idea of how much longer it has to live. Unfortunately, what’s going on in the inside doesn’t necessarily make much difference to what we can see from the outside, and to make matters worse we do not know Betelgeuse’s exact mass, so our theoretical calculations are not very secure.
The best guess is that Betelgeuse still has tens of thousands of years to live, but it really is a guess. It could already have exploded, and the light (and neutrinos) from that explosion are already heading our way. This is not, as far as we can tell, “likely” – but it is definitely possible. If it does happen in our lifetimes, it will be the most spectacular astronomical event for centuries – so let’s hope so!
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Tom Louth answered on 28 Apr 2020:
The bad news is that Betelgeuse probably isn’t going through a supernova. The visible light coming from it is dimming dramatically, but unfortunately the infra-red which makes up most of the light it emits is still just as bright as normal.
It could be happening though, which would be very cool.
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David Sobral answered on 29 Apr 2020:
Not likely, but not impossible. If it reaches us it means Betelgeuse already went supernova more than 500-600 years ago, when people like Galileu were just starting to look up with a primitive telescope 🙂
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