The Importance Of Betelgeuse To The Sun

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The name of my star is Betelgeuse. Its distance from the Earth is estimated to be about 650 light years away. Betelgeuse’s location is; right ascension: 05 hours 55minutes and 10.3 seconds with its declination: +07 degrees 24 minutes 25 seconds. When comparing Betelgeuse to the sun we can begin to appreciate this giant star’s enormous proportions. The sun’s distance from Earth is only 146 million km compared to the massive distance of Betelgeuse from the Earth being estimated at 9.3 trillion km. The radius of Betelgeuse is 1000 times that of the sun, with its mass 20 to 30 times larger. In the Northern Hemisphere, Betelgeuse can be easily seen with the visibility being at its peak in the winter months. This star is orange-red in color …show more content…

The dimmer the star the higher its apparent magnitude will be. Apparent Magnitude is used to measure how bright a star is to the human eye. Absolute Magnitude is the measurement of how bright a star actually is. By comparing the magnitude of Betelgeuse to that of the sun the numbers are as follows; Betelgeuse has an apparent magnitude of .41 with an absolute magnitude of -7.2. The sun has an apparent magnitude of -26.8 and an absolute magnitude of 4.8. This means that the sun looks brighter to us than Betelgeuse by our own eyes but in actuality the sun is …show more content…

The smaller the star the longer it will live. The larger the star the more of its fuel is used up. Betelgeuse is thought to be only 10 million years old compared to the sun’s age of 4.5 billion but because of its size being 20 times that of the sun, Betelgeuse is thought to be at the end of its lifespan. It is thought that within the next million years Betelgeuse will explode into a supernova. When this happens, scientist believe, that the explosion will be as bright as the moon in our sky and will last for several weeks and may be visible even during the day. The explosion of Betelgeuse will not affect earth due to the distance between the celestial bodies being so massive. It is thought that when the sun has used up all of its fuel and finally explodes even though it will not be a supernova like Betelgeuse, the sun will take earth with it. Thankfully, the sun’s life expectancy is considerably longer than Betelgeuse by a span of 4.5 billion

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