Something Weird Is Happening To This Red Giant Star

Looking up into the night sky, Betelgeuse (not to be confused with Michael Keaton’s homophonous character) is among the brightest stars. But astronomers recently realized that the red giant suddenly and unexpectedly got a lot brighter.

What’s going on?

Not too long ago, the star experienced a period during which it was substantially dimmer. This raised new speculation that it was in the final phases of its long life, but subsequent research indicated that the anomaly was caused by a huge explosion on its surface.

More recently, scientists say Betelgeuse began giving off about 50% more light than expected. While experts don’t think it is on the cusp of collapsing, this is a strange occurrence that doesn’t have a clear-cut cause just yet.

A revised schedule

Of course, witnessing changes in the star’s brightness is not altogether unusual. In a cycle that takes just over a year on average, Betelgeuse gets dimmer and brighter on a generally predictable progression.

After the sudden explosion recorded in 2019, however, that process appears to have been disrupted. Now, astronomers think it is reaching peak brightness about every 200 days — or roughly twice as fast as before.

What happens next?

All stars die, but the bigger they are the quicker they collapse. And even though Betelgeuse is substantially younger than our sun, the end appears to be near (at least on a cosmic scale).

Although it probably won’t happen for thousands of years, the spectacular conclusion of this giant’s life will involve a supernova that will be visible from our planet.

Astrophysicist Sara Webb said: "One of the coolest things about Betelgeuse is that we're watching the final stages of big-star evolution play out almost in real-time for us, which we've never really been able to study in this much depth before.”

Chris Agee May 27th, 2023

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