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To: Bloody Sam Roberts

Per wikipedia (for what that’s worth), there’s still an expectation that it will go nova:

“Like many young stars in Orion whose mass is greater than 10 \begin{smallmatrix}M_\odot\end{smallmatrix}, Betelgeuse will use its fuel quickly and not live long. On the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, Betelgeuse has moved off the main sequence and has swelled and cooled to become a red supergiant. Although young, Betelgeuse has probably exhausted the hydrogen in its core—unlike its OB cousins born about the same time—causing it to contract under the force of gravity into a hotter and denser state. As a result, it has begun to fuse helium into carbon and oxygen producing enough radiation to unfurl its outer envelopes of hydrogen and helium. Its mass and luminosity are such that the star will eventually fuse higher elements through neon, magnesium, sodium, and silicon all the way to iron, at which point it will probably collapse and explode as a type II supernova.[60][95]”


10 posted on 12/19/2014 7:46:10 AM PST by Little Pig
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To: Little Pig

Without stars like this there would be no earth-like rocky planets.


17 posted on 12/19/2014 8:22:01 AM PST by WMarshal (Free citizen, never a subject or a civilian)
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