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Questions tagged [betelgeuse]

Questions about α Orionis, the red supergiant star located in the "shoulder" of the constellation Orion.

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What can be learned by observing tumbling asteroid 319 Leona passing in front of Betelgeuse's fickle photocenter? What campaigns have been organized?

There's a lot of interest in Betelgeuse party because of it's recent fainting behavior, and despite being so close, the huge uncertainty in it's distance due to its fickle photocenter: Can New ...
uhoh's user avatar
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1 answer
218 views

Betelgeuse, placing light bulb so that its apparent brightness is similar to that of Betelgeuse; wavelength where it shines brightest?

The giant star Betelgeuse will develop into a supernova in the future. After this event, his remains will be far too dark to be observed from Earth. In order to maintain the view of the starry sky, it ...
mathgirl752's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
594 views

Intuitive connection between the periods of oscillation of Betelgeuse and the elemental concentrations at its core? (Betelgeuse; Saio et al. (2023))

Preamble (yes it's long, but it's part of this question's premise, so need to spell it out) Dr. Becky's recent video New study claims Betelgeuse supernova IMMINENT (decades not centuries!) | Night Sky ...
uhoh's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
881 views

How will the 2023 occultation of Betelgeuse be seen from Iran?

I was looking at the Wikipedia page for 319 Leona and I got excited to know that it will occult the bright star Betelgeuse on December 12, 2023 (It's predicted with the use of Solex application): On ...
Snack Exchange's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
3k views

What would Betelgeuse look like from Earth if it was at the edge of the Solar System

If we parked Betelgeuse just outside the Solar System, how big would it look from Earth?
Jordan's user avatar
  • 388
2 votes
1 answer
559 views

How bright would Betelgeuse's supernova appear?

Popular science articles suggest that when Betelgeuse goes supernova, for some days it would appear as bright as the full moon. But I have no intuition about a celestial point source that bright. ...
Camille Goudeseune's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
2k views

Betelgeuse appears in a rainbow of colors through a Newtonian telescope

My husband and I are complete amateurs. Tonight was only our second night using our new Orion XT6 Dobsonian telescope. Betelgeuse looked very clear, bright red. However, when we pointed the telescope ...
Dhara's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
14k views

If Betelgeuse is exploding in 2022, why would we see the explosion in 2022?

I have heard a lot about Betelgeuse exploding in 2022. But, I had a doubt about this. Astronomers are still receiving signals from Betelgeuse. And if Betelgeuse is going to explode in 2022, then ...
Ishaan Manish's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
158 views

If Betelgeuse dimmed because of dust, what became of the dust?

This question started as a clarification request of a question from Glorfindel, answered at least in part by James K, and I realized it would probably be best as a stand-alone question. The most ...
JohnHunt's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
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Is there any other theory to explain Betelgeuse's strange behavior except cosmic dust?

There is strange activity going for the last few months [leading up to November 2021] on Betelgeuse. First doubted as supernova and later cosmic or cosmological dust.
Kapish Lakhotia's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
106 views

Why does the Simbad page "A.A. Michelson's Jovian Galilean-satellite interferometer" show data for Betelgeuse?

When searching for things related to How did Michelson measure the diameters of jupiter's moons using optical interferometry? I came across the ui.adsabs.harvard.edu entry A. A. Michelson's Jovian ...
uhoh's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
438 views

Can New Horizons be used to measure the distance to Betelgeuse (despite its fickle photocenter)?

The New Horizons spacecraft is almost 50 AU from Earth and near-simultaneous images taken by its telescope and one on Earth have demonstrated parallax without relying on the movement of Earth in it's ...
uhoh's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
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How is the roll of the Hubble telescope around its axis and the dispersive direction(s) of it's spectrometer(s) managed?

Reading Dupree et al. 2020 Spatially Resolved Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of the Great Dimming of Betelgeuse (also in arXiv and summarized in Phys.org's Hubble finds that Betelgeuse's mysterious dimming ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
56 views

Is Betelgeuse is continually expelling material on the scale of the 2019/2020 event?

The AUGUST 13, 2020 Phys.org article Results from Hubble suggest that Betelgeuse's recent dimming was due to material ejected from the star says: ...the star's unexpected and significant dimming ...
Dave Gremlin's user avatar
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1 vote
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215 views

Why does Stellarium tell such imprecise distance for Betelgeuse? [duplicate]

The newest version of Stellarium, as well as the former ones, tell that Betelgeuse would be 497.95 ly plus/minus 56 ly away. Celestia also lists Betelgeuse ~500 ly away, but Celestia is comparably old....
Ioannes's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
3k views

How far from Betelgeuse is its habitable zone?

Betelgeuse is a red supergiant or hypergiant in the constellation Orion. It is one of the biggest and brightest stars seen from the Earth, and is expected to soon go supernova. The habitable zone, or ...
Ioannes's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
2k views

What's the correct distance to Betelgeuse? [duplicate]

Reading [1], [2] and this smartphone app[3], I'm getting different answers to the question. The smartphone app is stating 427ly. [1] states approx. 700 ly, and [2] states approx. 724ly. Even if I ...
ewokx's user avatar
  • 163
5 votes
1 answer
302 views

Do stars have "radio photospheres"? Are they different from their optical photospheres?

Comments below What is the maximum distance measurable with parallax? discuss challenges associated with parallax measurements of Betelgeuse and link to Wikipedia’s Betelgeuse; Distance measurements ...
uhoh's user avatar
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16 votes
2 answers
2k views

What will it finally take to accurately measure the distance to Betelgeuse?

Comments below What is the maximum distance measurable with parallax? discuss challenges associated with parallax measurements of Betelgeuse and link to Wikipedia’s Betelgeuse; Distance measurements ...
uhoh's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
334 views

What equipment and techniques were used to study Betelgeuse's diameter in 1920?

Comments below What is the maximum distance measurable with parallax? discuss challenges associated with parallax measurements of Betelgeuse and link to Wikipedia’s Betelgeuse; Distance measurements ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2k views

How can the radius of a star be measured using parallax?

The radius of Betelgeuse was measured using parallax. From the Wikipedia article: the estimated parallax from the Hipparcos mission was 7.63±1.64 mas, yielding an estimated radius for Betelgeuse of ...
usernumber's user avatar
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2 votes
0 answers
191 views

Betelgeuse problem

I've been given this problem: (a) A telescope is required to image an area of the sky of angular size 1 arc second onto a 10 mm square CCD. What focal length must the telescope mirror have to fully ...
space nerd's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
485 views

Why does titanium oxide around Betelgeuse produce this particular sawtooth-shaped absorption spectrum?

Betelgeuse Just Isn’t That Cool: Effective Temperature Alone Cannot Explain the Recent Dimming of Betelgeuse suggests that the recent dimming might be caused by increased optical absorption by dust ...
uhoh's user avatar
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3 votes
2 answers
2k views

What star is the closest to Betelgeuse?

Based on this answer, I should be able to figure out this question, if I know the distance between Betelgeuse and its nearest neighbor. So what is Betelgeuse's nearest neighbor? I do mean the ...
usernumber's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
556 views

When Betelgeuse goes supernova, will the explosion hit any neighboring stars?

There is evidence Betelgeuse might go supernova "soon". Are there any stars in the vicinity of Betelgeuse that are close enough that they will be hit by the explosion of this supernova? What would be ...
usernumber's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
229 views

Would the Event Horizon Telescope be able to produce a superior image of Betelgeuse?

Current images of Betelgeuse are already amazing, but I was wondering if the EHT could be able to make a significantly better image, given that Betelgeuse is pretty big and pretty bright?
Ags1's user avatar
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17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Daily magnitude of Betelgeuse

I tried searching on the internet and could not find anything, so does anyone know if there's a website which tracks and shows Betelgeuse's magnitude daily? I just went out today and saw that it's ...
hamayoun's user avatar
  • 283
2 votes
2 answers
370 views

Betelgeuse in false colors, is this common?

First, take the original Betelgeuse image from ALMA and remove red and green channels. Then boost the blue channel luminosity by x10 to x20 and a lot of detail pops out. This is the resulting image ...
pid's user avatar
  • 123
10 votes
1 answer
201 views

Color index B-V of the dimming Betelgeuse

Using AAVSO light curve generator I have plotted V and B magnitudes of Betelgeuse in the past 150 days to see trend of B-V color index. If dust would be the cause of the recent drop in the star ...
Leos Ondra's user avatar
  • 1,074
10 votes
1 answer
636 views

Will the nebula of Betelgeuse be visible to the naked eye? How bright, how large, how soon, for how long?

When Betelgeuse goes core collapse supernova it will leave a supernova remnant. Will it become visible to the naked eye? If so, in what time frame will it be visible. Will it be star like from the ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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22 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are stars expected to become dimmer before a supernova?

With the recent news about the "fainting" of Betelgeuse and the speculation that this might be a precursor to a supernova, I'm wondering if there is any theoretical/observational basis for this ...
user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
173 views

When we say a variable star is "fainting" does it mean something more or different than "dimming" or "fading"?

A comment below the question Does the current “fainting” of Betelgeuse show any spectral trends that differ from it's normal variability? suggests that "dimming" would be a better term, but I have a ...
uhoh's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
338 views

Did the late 2019 "fainting" of Betelgeuse show any spectral trends that differ from it's normal variability?

update: (August 2020) With all the newest news about including what the Dr. Becky video discusses as linked in How do magnetic fields mess with astronomers' observations? I'll bet this question ...
uhoh's user avatar
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