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NASA/ESA/Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)/Ronald Gilliland (STScI)
The Hubble Space Telescope was used to capture an image of Betelgeuse, a red star that marks the shoulder of the constellation Orion.
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An asteroid in our solar system will temporarily block the light of Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, Monday evening and Tuesday morning.
The disaster will be seen by millions living in a narrow zone that stretches halfway around the globe and includes Mexico, Florida south, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Central Asia.
Astronomers are expecting the event, known as a trickle, at about 8:17 pm ET. If you are outside the top of the observatory or bad weather blocks your view, The Virtual Telescope Project will broadcast the incident from Italy starting at 8pm ET.
Betelgeuse a red giant star about 700 light-years away that forms a shoulder in the constellation of Orion, according to the statement. NASA.
Because of its brightness, Betelgeuse is what astronomers call the first large star. It is set to pass between the star and the Earth of Leo, a small round-shaped asteroid located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Leona is about 50 miles (80 km) by 34 miles (55 km) in size.
While occultations, or asteroids that temporarily block the light of stars, happen all the time, it’s rare for space rocks to completely obscure the light of a former star from our view on Earth. world, says Gianluca Masi, astronomer and astrophysicist at the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory i. Italy and director of the Virtual Telescope Program.
The magic of Betelgeuse is the kind of thing that only happens once every few decades, Masi said.
Depending on the size of the star and asteroid, or the size of each object as seen from Earth, Betelgeuse can blink completely out of view for a few seconds, unlike anything. total solar eclipsesaid Masi.
The asteroid may not block all the starlight from Betelgeuse as it passes between Earth and the giant star, creating a visible “ring of fire” like a solar eclipse.
“We expect that the event will last for 10 (to) 15 seconds in total, if and how long the star will disappear completely will depend (on) the distribution or the amount all by Leona,” Masi said via email. “It is likely that the star will disappear and return gradually, but not suddenly, because of the large angle of Betelgeuse.”
Betelgeuse is so bright that the naked eye can see it, but Masi recommends viewing this object with binoculars or binoculars.
Astronomers are eager to observe occultation because it will help them gather scientific data on Leo and Betelgeuse that would be more difficult to gather elsewhere. side.
Scientists looking for occultation can get more detailed and accurate measurements of the size of the asteroid and understand what is happening with Betelgeuse, which. suddenly blurred in 2019 and 2020causing researchers to question whether the giant star will explode in a supernova.
While Betelgeuse shines once again and is a wild star that is widely considered to be the the dramatic conclusion is buildingAstronomers still question whether the star is on its way to an explosive end in the near future or thousands of years from now.
“We’ll hopefully be able to learn more about (Betelgeuse’s) large convective cells, encouraging its variable brightness,” Masi said. “It’s one of the best candidates for a future supernova, so the importance of the future is certainly very high.”
Observing Betelgeuse, which is about 10 million years old, allows astronomers to watch what happens late in a star’s life. As Betelgeuse burns through the wood at its core, it swells in many parts, becoming red, the last of the giant stars. When a star explodes, what happened during the day can be briefly seen on Earth.
Masi is looking forward to collecting scientific observations of the occultation, which serves as a kind of vision for what our night sky will look like one day when Betelgeuse disappears after the explosion.
“I can’t imagine seeing the constellation of Orion without its famous, bright shoulder, because it will be in the distant future, right when Betelgeuse explodes as a supernova and fade to black,” said Masi.