What will Betelgeuse become when it dies?

The explosion disintegrates the outer layers of the star’s matter, which will be scattered into the darkness beyond, ready to give life to new stars. But we can’t know exactly what will happen next. Betelgeuse could become an ultra-dense neutron star, or it could collapse and become a black hole.

What does the most massive star eventually turn into?

Their cores become massive enough that they cannot support themselves by electron degeneracy and will eventually collapse to produce a neutron star or black hole.

What happens to a supergiant star at the end of its lifecycle?

When a high-mass star has no hydrogen left to burn, it expands and becomes a red supergiant. While most stars quietly fade away, the supergiants destroy themselves in a huge explosion, called a supernova. The death of massive stars can trigger the birth of other stars.

What does a supergiant star turn into?

supernova
The average star then becomes a red giant, a planetary nebula, and ends its life as a white dwarf. The massive star turns into a red supergiant, goes supernova, and ends up as a neutron star or a black hole – again, depending on its size.

What would happen if Betelgeuse become a black hole?

Betelgeuse: Mass is between 7.7 and 20 solar masses, with most measurements lying somewhere in between. Barring newer models that suggest that lower mass stars can in special circumstances upon core collapse become black holes, Betelgeuse will likely end up as a neutron star.

What happens if Betelgeuse supernovas?

In late 2019, Betelgeuse, the star that forms the left shoulder of the constellation Orion, began to noticeably dim, prompting speculation of an imminent supernova. If it exploded, this cosmic neighbor a mere 700 light-years from Earth would be visible in the daytime for weeks.

What is formed when a massive star dies?

When the helium fuel runs out, the core will expand and cool. The upper layers will expand and eject material that will collect around the dying star to form a planetary nebula. Finally, the core will cool into a white dwarf and then eventually into a black dwarf. This entire process will take a few billion years.

What is the evolution of a massive star?

Massive stars evolve in much the same way that the Sun does (but always more quickly)—up to the formation of a carbon-oxygen core. Also, when more massive stars become red giants, they become so bright and large that we call them supergiants.

What happens during the supergiant phase?

A red supergiant occurs when a moderately massive star — perhaps 8–40 solar masses in size — exhausts its hydrogen fuel, evolves off of the main sequence, and transitions to fusing helium within its core. As this occurs, the star’s radius expands, causing its temperature to plummet.

Does a supergiant turn into a supernova?

All red supergiants will exhaust the helium in their cores within one or two million years and then start to burn carbon. This continues with fusion of heavier elements until an iron core builds up, which then inevitably collapses to produce a supernova.

Can Betelgeuse destroy Earth?

Will the Betelgeuse supernova destroy Earth? No. Whenever Betelgeuse does blow up, our planet Earth is too far away for this explosion to harm, much less destroy, life on Earth. Astrophysicists say we’d have to be within 50 light-years of a supernova for it to harm us.

Will Betelgeuse turn into a black hole or a neutron star?

If Betelgeuse does explode, it could become either a neutron star or a black hole. To become a black hole, the material left over by the supernova explosion would have to equal more than 3 solar masses.

When does the star Betelgeuse go out as a supernova?

Even though it is only 8 to 8.5 million years old, Betelgeuse is a massive star that has evolved quickly and is already approaching the end of its life cycle. It will go out as a supernova in the relatively near future, at some point in the next million years.

When did Betelgeuse expand into a red giant?

Betelgeuse likely started expanding into a red giant about 40,000 years ago. It is now believed to be fusing helium into carbon and oxygen in its core and will continue to fuse elements through neon, magnesium, silicon and finally iron.

What kind of atmosphere does Betelgeuse have?

Betelgeuse’s MOLsphere is known to be composed of carbon monoxide and water vapour, first detected in the 1960s. Radio image of Betelgeuse’s atmosphere – propelled by convective forces, the star’s atmosphere can expand beyond the orbit of Saturn. Image: NRAO/AUI and J. Lim, C. Carilli, S.M. White, A.J. Beasley, and R.G. Marson

How are luminous blue variables different from supergiants?

Luminous blue variables (LBVs) stars occur in the same region of the HR diagram as blue supergiants but are generally classified separately. They are evolved, expanded, massive, and luminous stars, often hypergiants, but they have very specific spectral variability, which defies the assignment of a standard spectral type.