WEBVTT - Is Betelgeuse About to Go Supernova? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.320 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio Pay 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:10.480 brain Stuff Lauren Bogelbaum. Here it's been called one of 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:14.680 the most famous stars of all time. Beetlejuice, yes like 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:17.720 the movie, but spelled differently, is part of the well 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.680 known Orion constellation and, as usually the tenth brightest star 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.520 in the heavens visible to the naked eye. We spoke 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:28.520 via email with Andy Howell, staff astronomer at the Los 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:31.840 Cumbrous Observatory and a physicist at the University of California, 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:36.160 Santa Barbara. He said, Beetle Juice over time has been 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.560 more famous than Mickey Mouse or any human alive today. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.280 That's because, over hundreds of thousands of years, our human 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:48.199 nighttime entertainment was looking up at the night sky. But 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:53.520 in October of twenty nineteen, Beetlejuice mysteriously began to dim. 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.560 It's drop in brilliance was apparent even to casual observers. 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.160 Astronomers were bewildered by its sudden shift. Some suspected the 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.959 Beetle Juice was running out of fuel and perhaps going supernova. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.280 Stars that go supernova create the most powerful explosions that 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:14.520 occur in space. However, more recent research indicates that Beetle 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.679 Juice is not necessarily on the verge of death. It 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.280 may simply have produced a debris field of sorts that 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:25.759 temporarily blocked it's incredible brightness. How Will explained Beetle Juice 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.839 is a red supergiant star about twelve times the mass 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:32.200 of the Sun, but a whopping nine hundred times the diameter. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.600 That means that if Beetlejuice were where the Sun is, 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.720 it would easily swallow Earth and extend out to beyond 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:43.120 the orbit of Jupiter. He adds that red supergiants are 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.800 stars at the end of their lives, after they've fused 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:49.080 all the hydrogen in their cores into helium. As they 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.760 burn heavier and heavier elements, their cores contract and their 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:57.600 outer layers puff up to extraordinary dimensions. Beetle Juice has 0:01:57.640 --> 0:02:01.640 always been known for its variable brightness. Generally, these fluctuations 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:05.880 occur semi regularly and only in modest amounts. Howell told 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:08.720 us that this happens because it pulsates as its stellar 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.880 atmosphere turns like a pot of boiling water, tossing around 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.959 huge blobs of material. But this more noticeable and sustained 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.959 dimming was a bit different. We also spoke via email 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:25.680 with Outward Guynen and astrophysics and planetary science professor at Villanova. 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.960 He said, the cause of the dimming is under discussion 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.520 and argument. The dimming could be due to the ejection 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.440 of gas that cool to dust and block the star's light. 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.560 On the other hand, the recent dimming, called the Great 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.840 Dimming or Great fainting, occurred at the time expected on 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.480 the four thirty day periodicity, so in this case would 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:47.680 be related to a cooling caused by pulsation or the 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:52.240 presence of a super large convection cell. Continuing observations should 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:58.200 answer this question soon. By April, the star had returned 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:01.560 to its normal brightness. But although Beetlejuice is recent demming 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.960 doesn't seem to indicate its eminent death. Its end is 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.880 coming someday, I will explained. Beetlejuice is going to explode 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.000 one day as a supernova. That could happen tomorrow, or 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:15.840 it could be in a hundred thousand years. We can't tell. 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.480 But when it does, it will be spectacular. It could 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.320 get as bright as the quarter moon, so bright you 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.919 could read by it at night. It will stay really 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:27.239 bright for months, and you should even be able to 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:30.880 see it in the daytime for about a year. Supernova 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.080 in the past certainly left profound impressions on humans. Chinese 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:38.920 astronomers documented a supernova from the year ten forty, and 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.160 it resulted in the crab Nebula, one of the more 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.880 famous bodies in the night sky. Howell said, sadly, we 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.000 haven't had a supernova in our galaxy witnessed by humans 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.400 in more than four hundred years. Just as Galileo was 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:56.240 perfecting the telescope in sixteen o four, one supernova happened 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:58.640 and he was able to witness it and lecture about it. 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.280 How actually attended a conference celebrating the four anniversary of 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.400 the supernova that Galileo saw. It was held partly in 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.440 Galileo's house and partly in that lecture hall where he 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:14.080 taught students. Howell said, these events are so astounding, humans 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.320 find a way to remember them and keep talking about 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.760 them for hundreds or thousands of years. Guynan too, hopes 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.039 that he's around to witness what's sure to be a 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:27.039 thrilling spectacle. He's been carrying out photometry of beetle juice 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.359 for more than forty years, and he's continually fascinated, in 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.039 part because it's so hard to predict what this strange 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.240 and mysterious star will do next. He said, Beetle Juice 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:40.279 is a huge, unstable star on the verge of becoming 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:43.560 upright supernova. Even though the odds of seeing this happen 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.920 in my lifetime are very very low, I nevertheless always 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.240 keep an eye on it, just in case, on a 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.320 long shot, it goes supernova. I would love to see this. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:55.800 If you'd like to take a gander at Beetle Juice 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.000 for yourself, Howell told us how to find it. Quote, 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:04.000 just for three close, equally spaced stars, they're unique in 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.200 all the sky, and that makes up the belt of Orion. 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.040 There are four bright stars above and below those forming 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.919 a rectangle that make up the shoulders and legs of Orion. 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.280 If you're in the northern hemisphere. The upper left star, 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.000 which for Oriyan would be his right shoulder, is Beetle Cheese. 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:29.360 You can tell because it's red and bright. Today's episode 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:31.719 was written by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang. 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.000 For more on this and lots of other stellar topics, 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.760 visit how Stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.599 of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts My heart Radio, visit 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.360 the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:43.279 to your favorite shows.