Although on average over a hundred years, only one supernova appears in a galaxy, there are about 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe. Over 10 billion years of its existence (to be precise, over 13.7 billion, but stars did not form during the first several hundred million years), according to Dr. Richard Mushocki of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, 1 billion arises in the observable Universe supernovae per year, or 30 per second! Could the explosion of the supernova Betelgeuse, the red giant of the Milky Way, become the next?
If that happens ...
An explosion of a star named Betelgeuse, one of the brightest in the sky, will make it equal to the full moon, and it will remain so throughout the year. Massive, visible in the winter sky over most of the world as a bright reddish point, it can become a supernova at any time over the next 100,000 years.
Most astronomers believe that today one of the probable reasons why we have not yet been able to detect intelligent life in the Universe is the deadly impact of local supernova explosions that destroy all life in a particular area of the galaxy.
The Hand of Al-Jawza
The red giant Betelgeuse, once so large that it could reach the orbit of Jupiter if it were in our solar system, has halved over the past ten years, although it has remained as bright as before.
Betelgeuse, whose name comes from Arabic, is clearly visible in the constellation Orion. The star named Michael Keaton's character in the Beetlejuice movie and was the native system of President Zaphod Beeblebrox in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels.
The red giants are believed to have a short, complex, and vibrant life. Living at most several million years, they quickly burn hydrogen fuel, and then switch to helium, carbon and other elements, from time to time shrink and flash again.
Betelgeuse: supernova explosion
This star is believed to be approaching the end of its existence and may experience one of the collapses that accompanies the replacement of one thermonuclear fuel with another.
The reason for the Betelgeuse compression is unknown. Considering everything we know about galaxies and the distant Universe, there is still much that we still have to learn about stars. It is also unknown what happens when the red giants approach the end of their existence.
If the explosion of the Betelgeuse star occurred and it became a supernova, then this would allow Earth astronomers to observe it and the physics that controls this process. The problem is that it is not known when this will happen. Although it was rumored that in 2012 Betelgeuse would explode when a star exploded, it is actually unknown. This did not happen, since the probability of such an event is very small. Betelgeuse may explode tomorrow night or stretch to 100,000 years.
Too far
To cause irreparable damage to the Earth, a supernova must erupt in a radius of no more than 100 light years. Does Betelgeuse satisfy this condition? The explosion will not do any harm to our planet, since the star should be much closer than it is now. The distance to Al-Jawza’s Hands is about 600 light-years.
This is one of the most famous bright stars. It is ten times the size of the Sun, and its age is only 10 million years. The more massive the luminary, the shorter the duration of its life. This is why astronomers turned their attention to Betelgeuse. The explosion of the red giant will occur in a relatively short time.
Supernova SN2007bi
At the end of 2009, astronomers witnessed the largest explosion ever recorded. The super-giant star, which was two hundred times the size of the Sun, was completely destroyed by a spontaneous thermonuclear reaction caused by the production of antimatter, which, in turn, was caused by gamma radiation. This is an example of what might happen with Betelgeuse collapse. The explosion could be observed for several months because it released a cloud of radioactive material, 50 times the size of the Sun and emitting a glow of nuclear fission, which can be observed from distant galaxies.
The supernova SN2007bi is an example of the breakdown of "para-instability." Its appearance is similar to an atomic bomb explosion triggered by compression of plutonium. At a size of about four megayattagrams (that's thirty-two zeros), giant stars are kept from gravitational collapse by gamma radiation pressure. The hotter the core, the higher the energy of gamma rays, but if they have too much energy, they are able, passing through an atom, to create electron-positron pairs of matter and antimatter from pure energy. This means that the entire core of the star acts as a giant accelerator of elementary particles.
11 Sun Thermonuclear Bomb
Antimatter annihilates with its opposite, as it tends to this, but the problem is that the speed of the explosion, which although extremely high, creates a critical delay in the creation of gamma pressure, which keeps the star from collapsing. The outer layers sag, compressing the core and raising its temperature. This increases the likelihood of more energetic gamma rays creating antimatter, and suddenly the whole star becomes an uncontrolled nuclear reactor, the scale of which exceeds the capabilities of our imagination. The entire thermonuclear core detonates instantly, like a thermonuclear bomb, the mass of which does not just exceed the size of the Sun - it is larger than the mass of 11 stars.
Everything explodes. Neither a black hole, nor a neutron star, there is nothing left but an expanding cloud of new radioactive material and empty space, where once there was the most massive object, which is only possible without breaking the space. An explosion causes reactions on a massive scale, transforming matter into new radioactive elements.
Killer stars
Some rare stars - real killers of the 11th type - are hypernovae, sources of deadly gamma-ray bursts (GRB). Compared to Betelgeuse, the explosion of such an object will release 1000 times more energy. Concrete proof of the GRB model appeared in 2003.
It appeared partly due to the “near” explosion, the location of which was determined by astronomers using the gamma-ray burst coordinate determination network (GCN). On March 29, 2003, the flash came close enough that subsequent observations became decisive in solving the mystery of gamma-ray bursts. The optical spectrum of the afterglow was almost identical to SN1998bw. In addition, observations of x-ray satellites showed the same characteristic feature - the presence of “shocked” and “heated” oxygen, which is also present in supernovae. Thus, astronomers were able to determine that the “afterglow” of the relatively close gamma-ray burst, located “only” two billion light-years from Earth, resembles a supernova.
It is not known whether each hypernova is associated with GRB. However, astronomers estimate that only one in 100,000 supernovae produces hypernovae. This amounts to about one gamma-ray burst per day, which is actually observed.
What is almost certainly certain is that the nucleus involved in the formation of the hypernova has enough mass to form a black hole, not a neutron star. Thus, each observed GRB is a “cry” of a newborn black hole.
White dwarf in T Compass system
Scientists agree that new observations of T Compass in the constellation of the Compass using the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite indicate that the white dwarf is part of a binary system and is 3260 light-years distant from Earth, which is much closer than the previous estimate of 6000 light-years.
The white dwarf is a repeating new. This means that thermonuclear star explosions occur every 20 years. The most recent known events were in 1967, 1944, 1920, 1902 and 1890. These explosions do not destroy a new, not a supernova, and have no effect on the Earth. Astronomers do not know why the interval between flares has increased.
Scientists believe that the explosions of the new are the result of an increase in mass when a dwarf star takes away hydrogen-rich gases from its satellite. When the mass reaches a certain limit, a new outbreak occurs. It is not known whether the mass increases or decreases during the pumping and explosion cycle, but if it reaches the so-called Chandrasekhar limit, the dwarf will become a type 1a supernova. In this case, the dwarf will shrink and a powerful flash will occur, the result of which will be its complete destruction. This type of supernova releases 10 million times more energy than a new one.
The energy of a thousand suns
Observations of the white dwarf during the new outbreaks suggest that its mass is increasing, and the data from the Hubble telescope about the material released during previous explosions confirm this point of view. Models estimate that the mass of a white dwarf can reach the Chandrasekhar limit in about 10 million years or earlier.
According to scientists, a supernova will lead to gamma radiation, whose energy is equivalent to 1000 simultaneous solar flares. This is more dangerous than the Betelgeuse explosion. When gamma radiation reaches the Earth, it threatens to produce nitrogen oxides, which can damage and possibly destroy the ozone layer. The supernova will be as bright as all the other stars in the Milky Way combined. One of the astronomers, Dr. Edward Sion of the University of Villanova, claims that it can explode in the near future on a time scale used by astronomers and geologists, but this is a distant future for humans.
Opinions differ
Astronomers believe that supernova explosions less than 100 light-years from Earth will be catastrophic, but the consequences remain unclear and will depend on how powerful the explosion turns out to be. A group of researchers claims that the outbreak is likely to be much closer and more powerful than the Betelgeuse explosion. When it comes to this, it is unknown, but the Earth will be seriously damaged. True, other researchers, such as Alex Filippenko from the University of California at Berkeley, a specialist in supernovae, active galaxies, black holes, gamma-ray bursts and the expansion of the Universe, disagree with the calculations and believe that an outbreak, if it occurs, is unlikely to harm the planet .