Skip to main content

Questions tagged [betelgeuse]

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

10 votes
1 answer
196 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 ...
0 votes
1 answer
213 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 ...
5 votes
2 answers
234 views

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 ...
7 votes
1 answer
329 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 ...
6 votes
1 answer
873 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 ...
6 votes
1 answer
585 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 ...
4 votes
0 answers
57 views

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 ...
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?
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 ...
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 ...
5 votes
0 answers
457 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 ...
2 votes
1 answer
538 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. ...
2 votes
1 answer
157 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 ...
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 ...
2 votes
2 answers
2k views

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.

15 30 50 per page