The star is relatively nearby at just 642 light-years away, and exists as an enormous red supergiant star. If it were placed in the centre of our Solar System, its outer surface could stretch to around the orbit of Jupiter. This Herculean size is due to an imbalance within the star’s interior. Towards the end of any star’s life, a lifetime of nuclear fusion – the process in which hydrogen fuses into helium within a stellar core and releases energy – has inevitably depleted the hydrogen fuel source that keeps the fire burning. This results in overpowering gravity putting strain on the core, which is experiencing a depleting radiation pressure output. This ignites nuclear fusion in the outer layers of the star, and the core then begins to convert helium into heavier elements such as carbon, oxygen and so on. The resultant radiation pressure within Betelgeuse’s outer layers has pushed the surface of the star outwards, bloating it into its current supergiant status.
This story is from the Issue 109 edition of All About Space.
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This story is from the Issue 109 edition of All About Space.
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