The numbers
- Type
- A red supergiantA late stage of its life
- Size
- 4AU in radiusBeyond the orbit of Mars
- Mass
- Fifteen to twenty times the Sun
- Distance
- 620light-years600 to 640 light-years
- Its end
- It will explode as a supernovaNobody knows when
To get an idea
Its mass is estimated at fifteen to twenty times that of the Sun.
It is the only clearly orange star among the bright ones of Orion: all the others are white or blue.
Fun facts
These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.
The rhythm of those pulses lasts about two thousand to two thousand three hundred days.
Its mass is estimated at fifteen to twenty times that of our Sun.
With that mass its end is sealed: sooner or later it will explode as a supernova.
Together with Sirius and Procyon it forms the star pattern called the Winter Triangle.
Its distance has been corrected over time, and with it all its other measurements.
Test yourself
The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.
Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book
What kind of star is Betelgeuse?
Question 2 of 5
Where is it?
Question 3 of 5
How big is it?
Question 4 of 5
Why does its brightness change?
Question 5 of 5
What will become of it?
Riddles
I sit on the hunter's shoulder and I am the only orange one among white and blue companions. If they put me in place of your Sun, I would swallow you. What am I?
I slowly swell and shrink, and whoever watches me for years notices my light changing. I am not doing well: I am at the end of my story. What am I?
I weigh almost twenty times as much as the star that warms you, and that decides how things will end. One day you will see me even in daylight, and then you will not see me anymore. What am I?
Try it yourself
Compare it with Rigel, at the bottom right of the same constellation, which is blue: you are looking at the two ends of the temperature scale.
Note how bright it looks compared with Rigel and check again the next winter: Betelgeuse pulses, and you can catch the difference.
The words
- variable star
- A star whose brightness changes over time.
Sources: Wikidata (Q13575), Wikipedia (Betelgeuse).