November 30, 2021
Tonight the bright red supergiant star Betelgeuse can be found rising in the east at 8 pm. It is thought to be 16 to 19 times the mass of the Sun which means Betelgeuse is a star destined to end in a supernova. At over 500 light years away, this poses no threat to Earth, but Betelgeuse will put on a show to be seen. Unfortunately, we have some time to wait as scientists think this will happen sometime in the next 100,000 years.
Images of Betelgeuse taken by ESO VLT, show that the dimming of Betelgeuse seen in 2019 was caused by a cloud of dust obscuring the star. The dust was caused by a large bubble gas erupting from the star that cooled turning into dust. Image credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al.