Has The Betelgeuse Star Exploded Many Years ago ? Will Its Gamma Ray Burst Destroy Life On Earth ?

We all know that Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the constellation Orion. The Orion Constellation and its star have been important since ancient times. This constellation is considered special in Babylonians Egyptians Chinese and Hindu cultures.

Every ancient Civilization has its own unique and interesting story about it. There are seven most major stars in this constellation. Which are Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka Rigel, Saiph, Bellatrix and Betelgeuse. For now, we’ll just talk about Betelgeuse. 

Betelgeuse one of those stars is the subject of much discussion among astronomers. The reason behind this is that it loses almost half of its lustre. Scientists believe it will soon have a supernova explosion. 

It is a giant red star that is 642 two light years away from us. Betelgeuse is a 20 times more massive than our Sun and a thousand times larger. According to the astronomers this star maybe 8.5 million years.

And it looks like the star is living its last days. New statics shows that the Beatles used are is constantly losing its mass. This is a pulsating and variable star. This means that it is changes brightness and shape overtime.

This is a red supergiant star off M2 type. This star is so large that if it were to replace the sun in our solar system, it would reach Jupiter's Orbit.

 Scientists working at the European Southern observatory in 2019 found that the star had reduced its brightness by 40%. Explaining this, they said that Betelgeuse had lost a lot of its mass. A very large telescope,paranal observatory,  which when, looking at a star in a Chile  with its instrument  in infrared light , discovered that the Betelgeuse was a constantly throwing a material from within into space.

This material cools and accumulates around it

in the form of a disc. This discusses surrounds it. Due to this, the brightness of Betelgeuse has increased from 0.4 apparent magnitude to + 2.5 magnitudes. Apparent magnitude measure how bright a star is from Earth. The lower the number of brightness of the star at the Apparent magnitude, the brighter it will be.

According to scientist, the Betelgeuse has a lived most of its life and is a guest in its last few years. The Betelgeuse is a rapidly eliminating nuclear fusion in its Core, which is why it will soon run out of fuel. Then later it will collapse into its own gravity and explode in it.

If this were to happen, scientists would be able to better understand how the stars behaved in their last days. It will also make us a witness a thrilling event. We can easily see it from the Earth. Research has shown that it will have a supernova in the next few years.

It may have exploded several years ago. Let’s understand this easily, the biggest problem for us is that we are currently looking at the Betelgeuse in the past. The Betelgeuse we see today is about 642 years old.   

Because it took 642 years for his light to reach us. So we can't tell from this earth what the Betelgeuse will look like at the moment. So it will always be in the same past as the light years from the Earth. It is absolutely that this star may have exploded many years ago, but its light has not reached us. The speed of light is the fastest in the universe but not infinite. 

 After the eruption, the glow of the Galaxy itself will fade in front of its glow. Its lustre will last for about two years.

It will then a turn into a neutron star. This will only be larger than 25 kilometres. Neutron stars are the most mysterious stars in the universe. The density of the star is so high that one drop can be as heavy as a pyramid.

 That is why scientists have always wondered. Because they are almost entirely made of neutrons. Some scientists say that the Betelgeuse will still take a million years to become a Supernova. Because they believe that it is very common for a red supergiant star to have more or less light.

Supernova explodes in our Galaxy one in almost a hundred years. But it only takes hundreds of thousands for their light to reach us. This will probably be the first time that we will be able to study in that the explosion of the star.

The biggest problem for us in this vast universe is the speed of light. In fact, our universe is a so large that even the fastest speed slow down. There are always amazing things happening in it which we would find hundreds of years later.

 So at the moment we can't say for sure what is going on in Betelgeuse right now? Whenever we see him from the Earth, it will always be 642 years old.  The picture we see of its today must have been from it around in the year of 1300 the star have been very important in the lives of our ancestors.

They worshipped   the stars, which is not a bad thing. In a way, we should also worship the stars. These are the entire elements that exist on our planet such as oxygen carbon iron silver even we ourselves are made of the dust of the stars.

 Astronomy makes us realize that we live in such a trivial matter in this vast universe.

But the question remains, if it explodes, are there any danger to the earth?  Because a supernova explosion I met a lot of Gamma Rays that are very harmful. So let's discuss   in Depth what the outcome will be.

Show the simple fact is that there is no threat to our planet right now. In fact, an explosion in a star emits a Gamma ray burst. Gamma Rays are considered to be the brightest, energetic and powerful event in the entire universe. 

We need to know about Gamma rays to understand why this is so. This explosion releases as much energy in a single movement to it in every direction as the sun probably produces in its entire life. Gamma Ray is extremely dangerous.

If you did not know about Gamma rays it would be an electromagnetic radiation like light. Whose light photons carry energy? But these gamma rays light photons carry millions of time more energy than normal visible light Photons.

Here are two types of Gamma ray burst.

 1. Long Gamma ray burst

 2. Short Gamma ray burst.

The Betelgeuse star will have a long Gamma ray burst that will last from about 45 seconds to 1 minute. It is so dangerous that it can wipe out the life from the Earth in an instant.

Many scientists say that millions of years ago, a beam of Gamma rays collide with the earth, destroying 80% of the World’s marine species.

 As similar light Gamma Rays travel at the speed of light. This is still impossible to detect. We can see exclusions in the distant galaxies in the night sky with the Gamma light. Which we do not usually see. Our earth’s ozone layer protects us from Dangerous gamma rays.

But it only blocks a small particle of Gamma ray. If there is a Supernova and the staff spread over 4000 light years, then the gamma-ray admit from it would destroy even our solar system. The Scientist says that if the Betelgeuse had an explosion, its Gamma ray burst would be much weaker as it reached us. So we are not at a risk.

As for the short Gamma ray burst, it is when two neutron stars collide due to their gravitational influence. Short Gamma ray burst is only for a second.  Gamma Rays were discovered by the United States during the Cold War.

They launched a satellite to detect gamma rays. Their goal was to locate the Soviet Union nuclear energy resources. But in this case the opposite happens. Instead of tracking nuclear sources, it detected gamma rays coming from space.

But at the time, we didn’t know where they were coming from. That is why we know about them. Hopefully we’ll learn more about the Betelgeuse star and Gamma rays in the future.