The Incredible Shrinking Star,Betelgeuse!

By Amelia Dormer

Location

Betelgeuse, called Alpha Orionis, is a star that makes up Orion’s shoulder in the east. It is 430 light years away from our solar system! It still shines bright in our sky at a magnitude of 0.5. Magnitude being the brightness of a star or celstial being.

Features

• Betelgeuse is a red giant. It is over 1000 times bigger than the sun. Being a reddish-yellowish color it is between 3,500 K and 5,500 K. Right now it is about 3650 K. It shines usually at a magnitude of 0.7.

Scale of Betelgeuse Compared to the Planets and Sun

Life Cycle

• Betelgeuse started out as a nebula. The nebula collapsed and became a proto sun. This protosun was about 10 to 50,000 K. After thousands of years Betelgeuse turned a yellow color, about 5,500 K. Now it is between the yellow and bright red stage.

Discovery

• In 1995 the Hubble’s telescope discovered Betelgeuse. It has been noticed before but never named. In 1836 Sir John Frederick William Hersche noticed that Betelgeuse had changed in brightness.

Future of Betelgeuse

• Betelgeuse is almost to the end of its period as a star. All stars get to a point where they become red giants (Betelgeuse now). Then they shrink to white dwarfs and then the last stage is a black dwarf.

The Shrinking Star

• Betelgeuse has substantially shrank from 1993. It has shrunk 15% since then and scientist know it’s life is almost over. Betelgeuse used to be about the size of our solar system. Now it is the size of Jupiter's orbit.

Different Views of Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse Today• This is Betelgeuse

Today• Scientists think that

Betelgeuse might become a supernova at the end of its life.

• Plumes of gas are coming off Betelgeuse now that it is getting to the end of its life

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imgres?imgurl=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u51/Invader_Xan/ Betelgeuse.jpg&imgrefurl=http://invaderxan.livejournal.com/tag/astronomy&usg=__Yj3lptuBiygce0_bPRmwV5rIllM=&h=400&w=400&sz=37&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=MB224THGrtcY7 M:&tbnh=124&tbnw=124&prev=/ images%3Fq%3Dold%2Bpic%2Bof%2Bbetelgeuse%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26um%3D1>.

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