One of the most observable objects in the sky by astronomers is Betelgeuse - Alpha Orion, one of the brightest stars in the constellation. The name Betelgeuse comes from Arabic - the Arab astronomers called it Yad-al-Jauza. And they are watching it now because the star is preparing to explode.
Betelgeuse's diameter is about 1400 times that of the Sun. If Betelgeuse were at the center of our solar system, instead of the Sun, it would swallow all four inner planets, including Earth and possibly even Jupiter. Its luminosity is about 14,000 times brighter than the Sun, despite the fact that its mass is only 20 solar.
It is believed that Betelgeuse in the course of stellar evolution is at the stage of the so-called red giant. It is like an old age for stars, when hydrogen is burned out in thermonuclear reactions and helium begins to accumulate in the central part of the star.
Over time, this helium forms a very dense core, while the outer part of the star expands to an enormous size. Further, as helium accumulates, the core temperature rises so much that a thermonuclear reaction with the participation of helium begins there, and then there may be two options: either further slow combustion-expansion, or an explosive collapse into a neutron star / black hole, which astronomers call “supernova”.
Betelgeuse and Antares are the first two candidates for supernovae, so astronomers watch them in all telescopes, distracting even from Nibiru and dangerous near-Earth asteroids. And over the past 50 years of observations, Betelgeuse has raised more questions for astronomers, as there are a number of signs that the star is going to go supernova soon. Today the Supernova Betelgeuse is so highly probable that the question by astronomers is not formulated “will it bang or not?”, But “when will it bang and how strong”?
People live on average for about 100 years, and they look at the sky in such a way that some kind of records and photographs are taken, only two hundred years. At the same time, the stars live for an infinite time and it is estimated that they cannot even imagine stellar evolution. Nevertheless, with the help of mathematics, observation, equations and other efforts, astronomers have some theories about the life of stars and on paper these theories seem to work. And according to these theories, Betelgeuse could explode at any moment in the next 100,000 years. That is, the probability of an explosion right tomorrow seems to exist, but it is small.
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Betelgeuse is a star with a change in luminosity - the traditional periods of change in its brightness have an amplitude of 150 - 450 days, which is assumed to be associated with the pulsation of the star. However, as salon.com reports on December 24, in the fall on Betelgeuse, something changed dramatically: its brightness dropped so much that visually Orion seemed to lose his shoulder, which Betelgeuse forms for him.
And this is not a sensation perceived by the mentally disadvantaged editors of the tabloids - this is the ALARM that astronomy magazines write about and which, it turns out, astronomers have been discussing all autumn and everyone is asking the same question: SUPER NEW !?
Betelgeuse is located at a distance of about 400-700 light years from Earth, so what we mean by Betelgeuse is most likely gone for a long time now - there is either a neutron star or a black hole. Therefore, the answer to this question is about "what is there?" is critically important for the preservation of life on planet Earth - in any case, life as we know it.
A nearby supernova was last seen from Earth in 1987. This star, known as SN1987A, was located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 170,000 light-years away, and was visible from the Southern Hemisphere. And, nevertheless, during its explosion, the recording instruments of astronomers went off scale.
Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb told salon.com that because Betelgeuse is several hundred times closer than SN1987A, for every neutrino observed from the SN1987A explosion, a million will come from Betelgeuse. Therefore, the Earth now has two options:
a) Betelgeuse collapses into a neutron star. Then we will see a beautiful sight in the form of a new moon, which will be visible even in daylight.
b) Betelgeuse collapses into a black hole, unleashing a monstrous gamma-ray burst on the Galaxy.
Fortunately, such rays are usually concentrated in two directions - like gamma-ray emissions from the centers of galaxies, so the probability of getting directly under this ray is small - otherwise everything on Earth will burn out. But even a simple local burst of external radiation will not do without consequences.
At the end of December 2004, a certain unnamed red red giant, somewhere hundreds of thousands of light years away, collapsed into a black hole, which caused a stream of gamma-ray bursts on Earth and, as a result, M9.5. in Indonesia on December 26, 2004. Nobody knows what will happen in the event of the collapse of Betelgeuse. Therefore, astronomers are now looking at Betelgeuse in all modes - in gravitational, in neutrino, in electromagnetic radiation and in cosmic rays.
According to which scenario the collapse of Betelgeuse will go, no one gives any guarantee, but in any case, in addition to electromagnetic radiation, there will still be a huge external shock wave. Its speed is lower than that of light, but it will push in front of it molecular interstellar gas, which will reach the Solar System faster than light will come from Betelgeuse.
The reason for this incredible speed is simple and you can see it when you open the tap in the bathroom - it is very far from the water tower, but due to the pressure difference, the water from the tap immediately flows. Likewise, interstellar gas and particle streams come first from a supernova, displaced by a sudden sharp expansion 400-700 light years away.
And there will be quite a lot of these particles, which was shown by Japanese astronomers in 2013 using the example of the cloud W44 - a supernova remnant that exploded about 6500 ~ 25000 years at a distance of 10,000 light years. The wind from there is registered now.
Since the likelihood of a Betelgeuse explosion has been talked about for a long time, NASA and other related organizations have made several educational films on this topic to show how it will approximately be:
As we noted above, the lifetime of astronomers is small and they cannot know everything, they can only speculate, assuming, in particular, the imminent explosion of Betelgeuse. However, it somehow strangely coincided that all this is happening against the background of the global expectation of the Apocalypse, when the Messiah should come and before this coming there will be a Sign in heaven - so the prophecies say.
There was also such a wonderful country as Ancient Egypt, where there was simply a cult of the constellation Orion. Why would there be such interest in this part of the sky? Did the Egyptians really know everything and were waiting for the light to come from Betelgeuse and burn everything?
Also in the constellation of Orion is an astronomical object known as the Horsehead Nebula (denoted IC 434 in the picture):
It is possible that all this is a game of fantasy of astronomers and a funny coincidence, but it is also possible that the nebula is like the head of a horse of one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Finally, the very name of the star Yad-al-Jauza, which the Arabs themselves cannot really translate. The name today sounds "The Hand of Al Jauza", but the Arabs no longer remember who this Jauza was, so we follow the development of events: when Betelgeuse bangs, then we will see this Al Jauza.
