Betelgeuse — one of the brightest and most recognizable stars in our night sky — is living on borrowed time. Located about 600 light-years away in the constellation Orion, this red supergiant is a true cosmic heavyweight, roughly 1,400 times larger than our Sun. If it replaced the Sun at the center of our solar system, its fiery surface would engulf Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and even extend beyond Jupiter’s orbit.
What’s astonishing is how young Betelgeuse is in stellar terms — only about 8 million years old. Yet it’s already in its final act, burning through its fuel at a furious pace. Red supergiants like Betelgeuse live fast and die young, and when the end comes, it will be in the form of a spectacular supernova explosion.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers captured an extraordinary view of Betelgeuse’s uneven, boiling surface — a massive, lopsided orange “blob” shaped by gigantic convection cells of hot gas churning through its outer layers. This unstable atmosphere is one of the clearest signs that the star’s life is winding down.
When Betelgeuse finally collapses, the resulting supernova will be so bright it could outshine the Moon and be visible even in daylight for weeks or months. While scientists can’t predict exactly when it will happen — tomorrow, a thousand years from now, or anywhere in between — it’s certain that such an event will be one of the most extraordinary astronomical spectacles in human history.
Until then, Betelgeuse remains under constant watch, offering scientists a rare, close-up opportunity to study the final stages of a massive star’s life before it explodes in cosmic glory.
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