Astro Brief: Supernova in the Sky

By Dr. Mike Reed

Published October 5, 2023 at 9:45 AM CDT

The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, in the constellation of Orion, has been undergoing unprecedented dimming. This stunning image of the star’s surface, taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope late last year, is among the first observations to come out of an observing campaign aimed at understanding why the star is becoming fainter. When compared with the image taken in January 2019, it shows how much the star has faded and how its apparent shape has changed.

Betelgeuse preparing to explode, says recent study.

Eleven times as massive and over half a million times brighter than our own sun, Betelgeuse is the second brightest star in the Orion constellation. Stars have limited energy sources and a recent paper suggests that Betelgeuse may have already consumed its secondary energy source, Helium, and has nearly finished it's third source, Carbon.

Join us this week as Mike discusses the red supergiant star Betelgeuse it's imminent demise.

Astro Brief is a collaboration between KSMU, the Missouri Space Grant, and MSU's Department of Physics, Astronomy and Materials Science. Hosted by Dr. Mike Reed, Astro Brief focuses on astronomical events, the field of astronomy, and astronomy-related guests. It airs Thursdays at 9:45 am on KSMU.