One of the brightest stars in the sky is about to explode?

When it happens, the explosion of a star larger than 1,000 Suns can be seen from the Earth even in the morning.

Betelgeuse - the red giant star in the constellation Orion - is likely to explode. According to CNET, scientists from Villanova University, Pennsylvania (USA) said the star's brightness has been decreasing over the past few months. This is the manifestation of a star at the end of its life cycle.

In early December, scientists said the brightness of Betelgeuse was at "the lowest ever". On December 23, the team announced that the brightness had been decreasing for the past two weeks. Betelgeuse was once one of the 10 brightest stars in the sky when viewed from Earth, but now it has fallen to 21st place.

When a star fades, there are two possibilities. The first possibility is that this star, already at the end of its life, is radiating energy at different levels. The cycle of brightness changes lasts about 50 years, and Betelgeuse may be at its lowest level before the light returns. This cycle, with a star, is just like a wink.

The illustration of the star Betelgeuse and the area around this star.(Photo: L. Calcada).

"Stars at the end of their lifetimes often change their luminance quite a bit, which we haven't explained yet. It could still exist for 10,000 or 100,000 years," explains astronomer Yvette Cendes of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center. prefer.

The second possibility is that Betelgeuse has actually gone full life and is about to explode. If such an explosion occurs, humans will witness a stellar explosion, a phenomenon we've only observed a few times in the past 1,000 years.

Betelgeuse is located several hundred light-years from Earth. This is enough distance for the Earth to be safe from this star's explosion. According to astronomer Sten Odenwald, it will take 10,000 years for the meteorite and X-ray fragments from the explosion to reach Earth, and our planet will not be affected by the magnetic field either.

Betelgeuse's explosion will be one of the brightest star explosions humans have ever seen. We can see the explosion even in the morning. The most recent stellar explosion in the Milky Way is the one recorded by astronomer Johannes Kepler, which occurred in 1604.

A screenshot of Betelgeuse from the Hubble telescope.(Photo: NASA).

According to records from that time, people could see the light in the sky over a period of 3 weeks. The star SN 1604 is about 20,000 light-years from Earth. Meanwhile, the distance from Betelgeuse to Earth is 10 times closer than the explosion in 1604.

However, many astronomers believe that this explosion will not happen in the near future. According to NASA scientist Eric Mamajek, only 0.1% of the explosion will occur in the next few decades.

Astronomer Heloise Stavance also pointed out that during this period of Betelgeuse, the stars were negligible darker than in past cycles.

"Betelgeuse is not even the most likely star to explode. That position belongs to the star Eta Carinae. However Betelgeuse is located in the northern hemisphere, so its explosion will be more witnessed. We cannot predict 100% exactly when a star explosion will occur, " concluded Yvette Cendes.

1. The dying star swallows its companion
2. The star about to explode is 1,400 times bigger than the Sun