Stars No. Betelgeuse Supernova
by Mark Garlick - © Mark A. Garlick / space-art.co.uk - Mark A. Garlick/SPL
Betelgeuse supernova, artwork
The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, famously marking the leftmost shoulder in the constellation of Orion the Hunter, is poised to explode. It is dangerously close to having exhausted its entire stock of reactionable nuclear fuel, and it could go supernova any time within the next one million years — even right now. This artwork depicts the constellation were Betelgeuse to explode now. It shines an uncharacteristic, steely blue.