Friday, February 28, 2020

Nope, No Kaboom

Betelgeuse is not going to explode right now. The star's unusually extreme dimming period is over and it is returning to normal magnitude precisely on schedule.

Astronomers are not entirely sure why it dimmed so much, but possible explanations include sunspots or a cloud of dust that happened to pass between us and Betelgeuse when it was dimming anyway.

It's also possible that oscillations in a luminous red supergiant start to increase slowly before a supernova, and while this is not a sign Betelgeuse will blow tomorrow, it could be a "sign of aging" that means the nova is imminent.

Unfortunately for us, imminent could mean "in the next hundred thousand years."

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