Scientists Simulate Betelgeuse Star’s Powerful Supernova Event

A group of researchers simulated what would happen if the red supergiant star Betelgeuse dies and explode in a powerful supernova. The researchers carried out their study based on the notion that the massive star is already nearing the end of its life cycle.

Betelgeuse is located in the Orion constellation and sits about 700 light-years from Earth. Observations on the star indicated that it is about 1,000 times the size of the Sun.

In the past couple of years, scientists noticed a dip in the star’s overall brightness, prompting many of them to believe that Betelgeuse is nearing its death. Scientists predict that once this happens, the star will collapse under the weight of its own gravity, triggering a powerful stellar explosion known as a supernova.

Given the star’s massive size and location, scientists believe that Betelgeuse’s supernova will be visible from Earth. It will appear as a bright flash in the sky that can last for a long time.

In a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers from the University of California explained how they were able to create a model of a stellar explosion caused by a pulsating supergiant like Betelgeuse.

As noted by the research, the intensity of supernova events depends on the mass of the star. In the case of Betelgeuse, researchers predicted that once it explodes, it will produce a supernova event similar to that of a static star.

“It just looks like a supernova from a bigger star or a smaller star at different points in the pulsation,” Jared Goldberg, the lead author of the study, said in a statement. “It's when you start considering pulsations that are more complicated, where there's stuff moving in at the same time as stuff moving out — then our model actually does produce noticeable differences.”

Although the study explains Betelgeuse’s simulated supernova, a different paper had already confirmed that the massive star is not in danger of exploding anytime soon. According to the authors of the study, the star’s dimming brightness was caused by the outer material being expelled by Betelgeuse.

The researchers explained that this phenomenon, which occurs naturally, releases dust particles around the star. These particles could block the light emitted by the star, causing it to appear dimmer.

“Red supergiants will occasionally shed material from their surfaces, which will condense around the star as dust,” scientist Emily Levesque of the University of Washington said in a press release. “As it cools and dissipates, the dust grains will absorb some of the light heading toward us and block our view.”