A shooting star, about to explode in the sky of Earth?

The supergiant star Betelgeuse continues to thrill astronomers with its dramatic changes from April 2023, promising an explosion powerful enough to light up the Earth's night sky.

Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in Earth's sky, a "spooky" reddish color located in the constellation Orion. It has attracted the attention of astronomers for centuries, with the earliest recorded mention coming from the Chinese scholar Sima Qian more than 2,100 years ago.

Betelgeuse's various "transformations," including ejecting material and becoming bright and then dimming, suspected to be obscured by dust it ejects - (Photo: NASA).

Since April, the star has climbed straight from the 10th brightest spot in the night sky to the seventh, due to a 140% increase in brightness , according to Betelgeuse Status -  a Twitter account that brings together professional and amateur astronomers to track this mysterious star.

According to Space, Betelgeuse's constant changes - sometimes dimmer, sometimes brighter - from 2019 until now have made astronomers around the world speculate that it is approaching its death throes.

In Sima Qian's records, this bright star was yellow, while today we see it as red, proving that this giant star has been gradually entering the "red giant" stage over the past two millennia. This is the final flare-up stage before exploding into a supernova.

If it explodes, the light from Betelgeuse will be enough to make it at least as bright as the full moon, possibly illuminating Earth's night sky or attracting attention even during the day.

Fortunately, at a distance of 650 light years, this supernova is unlikely to impact Earth like some of the closer ancient supernovae associated with mass extinctions.

Astronomers around the world are divided into two "camps", one side believes it could explode at any moment, the other side believes it still has some time left.

"Our best models show that Betelgeuse is currently burning helium into carbon and oxygen in its core. That means it is tens or hundreds of thousands of years away from exploding - if the model is correct," said astrophysicist Morgan MacLeod of Harvard University.