Betelgeuse compared to our solar system Betelgeuse compared to our solar system

Supernova event called off - Betelgeuse won’t explode

 – at least not right away

Call off the supernova watch. The red supergiant star known as Betelgeuse isn’t going to explode in a supernova after all. (Though it will at sometime in the future up to 100,000 years from now.)

A couple of weeks ago we reported:

For months, astronomers have been keeping a wary eye on Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion’s shoulder. What’s attracting their attention? All of a sudden, Betelgeuse isn’t bright anymore. Its visible luminosity has “fallen off a cliff”–a sign that the star could be on the verge of going supernova.

If Betelegeuse starts to bounce back on Feb. 21st, this whole episode might just be a deeper-than-average pulsation, and perhaps the supernova watch can be called off.

New readings indicate that Betelgeuse is in fact, brightening again.

Researchers from Villanova University, who have been leading the study of Betelegeuse’s unprecedented decline, have confirmed in a new Astronomical Telegram that the star has reversed itself.

The turnaround was actually predicted, and suggests the recent dimming was an unusually deep excursion of the star’s natural 430-day periodicity.

Source: spaceweather.com

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By Anthony Watts

I’m a former AMS certified (Seal 676 retired) television meteorologist who spent 25 years on the air and who also operates a weather technology and content business, as well as continues daily forecasting on radio, just for fun.

Weather measurement and weather presentation technology is my specialty. I also provide weather stations and custom weather monitoring solutions via www.weathershop.com (if you like my work, please consider buying a weather gadget there, StormPredator for example) and www.tempelert.com, and turn key weather channels with advertising at www.viziframe.com

The weather graphics you see in the lower right corner of the blog are produced by my company, IntelliWeather. As you can see most of my work is in weather technology such as weather stations,  weather data processing systems, and weather graphics creation and display.  While I’m not a degreed climate scientist, I’ll point out that neither is Al Gore, and his specialty is presentation also. And that’s part of what this blog is about: presentation of weather and climate data in a form the public can understand and discuss.

I’m also hearing impaired, with about an 85% sensory-neural hearing loss I’ve had since my early teens (11) due to an ototoxic drug reaction. Basically I’m totally deaf above about 2 kilohertz, with significant losses in the remaining frequencies. I wear powerful microprocessor based CIC hearing aids in each ear, which corrects my hearing up to about 30% of normal for the remainder. This hearing handicap forced many decisions in my life for me, including becoming a TV broadcaster when the opportunity presented itself. Why? Because in TV and radio I didn’t have the embarrassing problem of trying to hear people, I only had to talk. Blogging of course is natural for me, since it allows me to “broadcast” but also to interact without needing to hear. For more on hearing loss, see the Starkey Hearing Foundation, which I support.

See more about hearing loss and my story here

(Source: wattsupwiththat.com; February 22, 2020; https://wp.me/p9SOJY-131c)
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