Last night I posted on Weather Dork an exposure of the night sky in Highland, NY. See the image below.
Notice the constellation Orion in the upper right hand part of the image. The streaks coming off the stars were caused by a movement of the lens when I took the photograph.
Having trouble seeing it? It's okay! Here is a more detailed image of Orion, or, The Hunter.
This is the constellation Orion with the outlined shape. Notice his belt, the three stars, in the center. Source: http://www.pa.msu.edu/
Orion has been acknowledged by different cultures around the world for thousands of years. It is one of the most noticeable constellations in the sky due in part to the very thing that makes him famous, Orion's Belt.
The belt is made up of three individual stars: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The three stars look like they are right next to one another, right? I know it may look this way but in reality they are many many light years (or the distance it takes to travel at the speed of light in one year) away from one another.
Think of it this way. You are sitting at a table and have three grapes sitting in front of you. You take the first grape and put it one foot away from you on the table. The next you put two feet away from you and just to the right of the first. The final grape you set on the edge of the table on the other side and again just to the right of the other two. Then, you kneel down and look at the grapes at eye level. They look like they are right next to one another but in reality they are spread out over a distance. This is the concept with the three stars that make up Orion's Belt.
But this blog is not about Orion's Belt, it is about the two massive stars that stand out in it: Rigel and Betelgeuse.
Let's look at a photo of the two stars to help us understand where they are in the constellation:
The belt is made up of three individual stars: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. The three stars look like they are right next to one another, right? I know it may look this way but in reality they are many many light years (or the distance it takes to travel at the speed of light in one year) away from one another.
Think of it this way. You are sitting at a table and have three grapes sitting in front of you. You take the first grape and put it one foot away from you on the table. The next you put two feet away from you and just to the right of the first. The final grape you set on the edge of the table on the other side and again just to the right of the other two. Then, you kneel down and look at the grapes at eye level. They look like they are right next to one another but in reality they are spread out over a distance. This is the concept with the three stars that make up Orion's Belt.
But this blog is not about Orion's Belt, it is about the two massive stars that stand out in it: Rigel and Betelgeuse.
Let's look at a photo of the two stars to help us understand where they are in the constellation:
Notice Betelgeuse and Rigel circled. Compare this photo to the first one in this blog and you can see the red tint of Betelgeuse and blue tint of Rigel. Source: http://ottawa-rasc.ca
Let's start with Rigel, the smallest of two:
Rigel is the brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is around 850 light years away, or, if you were traveling at 700,000,000mph it would still take 850 years to get to Rigel from Earth. Earthsky.org puts this in perspective, "In other words, the light you may see from Rigel some spring or winter night, started on its journey at least 250 years before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic!"
The star itself is called a blue supergiant. It literally is a giant! To understand the size of the Rigel we must first understand the size of our own Sun when compared with the Earth. Look at this image:
Rigel is the brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is around 850 light years away, or, if you were traveling at 700,000,000mph it would still take 850 years to get to Rigel from Earth. Earthsky.org puts this in perspective, "In other words, the light you may see from Rigel some spring or winter night, started on its journey at least 250 years before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic!"
The star itself is called a blue supergiant. It literally is a giant! To understand the size of the Rigel we must first understand the size of our own Sun when compared with the Earth. Look at this image:
The Earth is dwarfed by the size of our own Sun. Source: http://www.stardomenj.com
The Earth is just a speck of dust when compared to the star that gives us our light and warmth. When I first learned about the size of the Sun I was shocked! It's massive!
Then, I learned about the other stars in the universe. Check out this image of Rigel when compared to our own Sun, or Sol.
Then, I learned about the other stars in the universe. Check out this image of Rigel when compared to our own Sun, or Sol.
As you can see our own HUGE star is dwarfed when compared to Rigel! Source: Wikipedia
Rigel is extremely hot and bright, much hotter and brighter than our own star. In fact Rigel is 60,000 times BRIGHTER than our own Sun! You'd have to wear a welding mask just to be able to function during the day. Blue supergiants really do live up to their name. Just like a giant they go through A LOT of food to survive. Stars eat elements. Specifically they take elements and fuse them to create light and heat. Our Sun does this with hydrogen. It fuses hydrogen to create helium. However, there is only so much hydrogen to fuse in a star.
Rigel has run out of fuel and is expanding. The blue color comes from the temperature it burns at. The hottest stars are blue and the "coolest" stars are red. Our Sun is in the middle with a yellow color.
Here is a close up of Rigel from space:
Rigel has run out of fuel and is expanding. The blue color comes from the temperature it burns at. The hottest stars are blue and the "coolest" stars are red. Our Sun is in the middle with a yellow color.
Here is a close up of Rigel from space:
Rigel is on the right in this Hubble image. Photo: http://en.esimg.org
Next let's talk about Betelgeuse, Rigel's BIG brother:
Betelgeuse is one of the largest and luminous starts known to the human race. If it were at the center of our Solar System, its surface would extend past the asteroid belt possibly to the orbit of Jupiter and beyond, wholly engulfing Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Betelgeuse is about 600 light years away so the light we see from the star today is 600 years old.
Remember how I said Rigel was a giant? Well Betelgeuse dwarfs Rigel! Look at this photo and keep in mind the other size comparisons from above.
Betelgeuse is one of the largest and luminous starts known to the human race. If it were at the center of our Solar System, its surface would extend past the asteroid belt possibly to the orbit of Jupiter and beyond, wholly engulfing Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Betelgeuse is about 600 light years away so the light we see from the star today is 600 years old.
Remember how I said Rigel was a giant? Well Betelgeuse dwarfs Rigel! Look at this photo and keep in mind the other size comparisons from above.
The small Sun is completely enveloped by the sheer size of Betelgeuse. Source: http://stock-space-images.com
Think of it this way:
If you were to stack multiple Earths inside the Sun to fill up the entire area it would take over 1 MILLION Earths!
BUT, if you were to fill up Betelgeuse with multiple Suns it would take 1 BILLION SUNS just to fill the inside.
Now let's talk about the future of these stars:
Rigel and Betelgeuse represent two very distinctive stages of a star's life. After a star with more than 10 solar masses, or 10x the mass of our own Sun, burns through its hydrogen it will become a red supergiant. Betelgeuse is an example of this.
If you were to stack multiple Earths inside the Sun to fill up the entire area it would take over 1 MILLION Earths!
BUT, if you were to fill up Betelgeuse with multiple Suns it would take 1 BILLION SUNS just to fill the inside.
Now let's talk about the future of these stars:
Rigel and Betelgeuse represent two very distinctive stages of a star's life. After a star with more than 10 solar masses, or 10x the mass of our own Sun, burns through its hydrogen it will become a red supergiant. Betelgeuse is an example of this.
A star that is more massive than our own Sun stars as a blue star. It goes through its fuel extremely fast, sometimes in just thousands of years, and then expands into a giant and then a supergiant. After the supergiant stage the supernova occurs. Finally an unbelievably dense and massive neutron star, which is the leftovers of the previous supergiant, collapses on itself and tears a hole in space, the black hole. Source: http://library.thinkquest.org
Betelgeuse. Image: http://www.dbitsolutions.com
It takes a lot of fuel to allow a star to continue fusion. Over time it will try to fuse different elements until it finally tries to fuse iron. Iron DOES NOT allow fusion. The result?
A titanic explosion that will crush the core of the star into a black hole, while blasting the outer layers of the star into space. This explosion is called a Supernova. Supernovas shine for months until they finally burn out. What's left? An extremely massive neutron star that cannot support itself in space.
Think of it this way. If you took a spoonful of a neutron star it would weigh 100,000,000 tons! Eventually some of these stars collapse and form one of the scariest things in the universe, a black hole.
There are additional calculations and solar masses and difficult astronomy terms that decide which stars go supernova, which stars just burn out, and which stars become black holes but it's confusing.
I will say that our own star will not supernova. The Sun, around 5 billion years from now, will grow to the size of a giant and engulf the Earth as it tries to fuse different elements. Eventually it will run out of fuel and shrink/cool into a white dwarf. Over time this white dwarf will cool and dim into a black dwarf. Black dwarfs are theorized to become giant diamonds. If you find yourself in space look for giant diamonds floating around!
A titanic explosion that will crush the core of the star into a black hole, while blasting the outer layers of the star into space. This explosion is called a Supernova. Supernovas shine for months until they finally burn out. What's left? An extremely massive neutron star that cannot support itself in space.
Think of it this way. If you took a spoonful of a neutron star it would weigh 100,000,000 tons! Eventually some of these stars collapse and form one of the scariest things in the universe, a black hole.
There are additional calculations and solar masses and difficult astronomy terms that decide which stars go supernova, which stars just burn out, and which stars become black holes but it's confusing.
I will say that our own star will not supernova. The Sun, around 5 billion years from now, will grow to the size of a giant and engulf the Earth as it tries to fuse different elements. Eventually it will run out of fuel and shrink/cool into a white dwarf. Over time this white dwarf will cool and dim into a black dwarf. Black dwarfs are theorized to become giant diamonds. If you find yourself in space look for giant diamonds floating around!
The life cycle of a Yellow star like our own. Notice the lack of supernova. Image: http://library.thinkquest.org/
In conclusion, well, there's not much to say. The Universe is a truly amazing and violent place where unimaginable explosions and births happen every single day. Betelgeuse may have already gone supernova 100 years ago. It will take another 700 years for the light to reach us. A supernova's light is bright enough to make night as bright as day on planet Earth. It will last for months until it stops and Betelgeuse is gone from the night sky. This is the cycle of the stars. I could go on and on for hours discussing the beauty and power held without our universe but I will stop here, for now. I hope you enjoyed this blog. As always please feel free to comment.
Sources:
Aside from the images and one quote which are cited I used my own knowledge of Astronomy to write this blog.
Sources:
Aside from the images and one quote which are cited I used my own knowledge of Astronomy to write this blog.
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