Betelgeuse is a superstar!(Science & Technology) (Essay)

• Author: Braffman-Miller, Judith

The grand finale of Betelgeuse will be a spectacular show--full of sound and fury. Earth will have a front-row seat at this stellar farewell performance.

THERE ARE STARS, and there are superstars. The gigantic and bright star Betelgeuse is a superstar, and it is going to put on quite a farewell performance for Earth sometime within the next 1,000,000 years or so.

Betelgeuse is one of the most brilliant stars in the sky, and easily can be seen without a telescope, shining with a distinctive orange-red fire on the shoulder of Orion the Hunter. This enormous star lies about 430 light-years from Earth, and is approximately 100,000 times more brilliant than our golden sun, and about 1,000 times larger. Indeed, if Betelgeuse took the place of our star, the sun, in our solar system, this gigantic ball of incandescent gas would extend out to the orbits of Mars or Jupiter. Sometime within the next 1,000,000 years, when it has managed to devour its hydrogen fuel, Betelgeuse will hurl off its outer layers and go violently, brilliantly, and beautifully supernova.

The names of many of the most brilliant stars that haunt our sky at night bear names that are Arabic in origin. This is because Arabic astronomers and astrologers were dominant while Europe slept during the Dark Ages. The name Betelgeuse is thought to be derived from an Arabic phrase that commonly is translated as "The Armpit of the Giant." The "Giant" here is, of course, is the constellation Orion. However, some scholars interpret Betelgeuse as representing a shoulder, or sometimes, even a hand, belonging to the starlit, giant "hunter."

While the original meaning of its name remains obscure, Betelgeuse hangs suspended on the right shoulder of Orion in numerous antiquated star maps. Betelgeuse is the 10th brightest star in the sky, and the seventh brightest star that can be observed from most of the U.S., Canada, Europe, and throughout a large percentage of the Northern Hemisphere.

In various ancient mythologies, Orion frequently is associated with a hunter, a warrior, or a giant--even a god, or some other anthropomorphic or animal being. There are some very interesting folk tales related to Betelgeuse. For instance, the Wardaman people dwelling in northern Australia named the star Ya-jungin, which means "Owl Eyes Flickering." This is because its variable fire signified an owl's blinking watch over ceremonies led by the Red Kangaroo Leader, whose name was "Rigel." In the Americas, Betelgeuse...