Tuesday, January 22, 2013

PHOTO : Detailed View of Betelgeuse, on a Collision Course with a Nearby Wall of Dust

Detailed View of Betelgeuse, on a Collision Course with a Nearby Wall of Dust:
Betelgeuse
A photograph of the red supergiant Betelgeuse interacting with a mysterious dusty wall. Image credit: Herschel/ESA
Betelgeuse is one of my favorite objects to look at, partly because of its pure red color, and mostly because my imagination fills in the rest. That bright red star, the shoulder of Orion is a supergiant, with dozens of times the mass of the Sun, and ready to detonate as a supernova any day now (any day within the next few million years).
But look at Betelgeuse with a really powerful telescope, like the European Space Agency’s Herschel telescope, and you’ll see something like this: the red supergiant Betelgeuse in all its glory, smashing its ferocious solar winds into its environment.
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