Betelgeuse facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Position Alpha Ori
The pink arrow at the star on left labelled α indicates Betelgeuse in Orion

Betelgeuse, or Betelgeux is a large red supergiant star in the constellation Orion. It is the ninth-brightest star in the night sky, and second-brightest in Orion.

Betelgeuse is a semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude varies between 0.2 and 1.2. This is the widest range of any first-magnitude star. It is also one of the largest and most luminous observable stars. Its distance from Earth was estimated in 2008 at 640 light-years, with a mean absolute magnitude of about −6.02.

Less than 10 million years old, Betelgeuse has evolved rapidly because of its high mass. It is moving through the interstellar medium at a supersonic speed of 30 km/s, creating a shock wave over 4 light-years wide.

Betelgeuse is in a late stage of stellar evolution. It will rapidly go through its life cycle before exploding as a type II supernova sometime in the next million years. An observation by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2013 showed that the star's winds are crashing against the surrounding interstellar medium.

Related pages

Images for kids

  • Betelgeuse pulsating UV (HST)

    1988/9 UV HST images of Betelgeuse showing asymmetrical pulsations with corresponding spectral line profiles

  • Orion Head to Toe

    Image showing Betelgeuse and the dense nebulae of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex (Rogelio Bernal Andreo)

  • USA.NM.VeryLargeArray.02

    NRAO's Very Large Array used to derive Betelgeuse's 2008 distance estimate

  • Light curve of Betelgeuse

    AAVSO V-band light curve of Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) from Dec 1988 to Aug 2002

  • Betelgeuse radio wavelengths

    Radio image from 1998 (pre-Harper) showing the size of Betelgeuse's photosphere (circle) and the effect of convective forces on the star's atmosphere

  • Orion's Big Head Revealed in Infrared

    Infrared image of Betelgeuse, Meissa and Bellatrix with surrounding nebulae

  • Orion OB1 & 25 Ori Group

    Orion OB1 Association

  • ESO-Betelgeuse

    Image from ESO's Very Large Telescope showing the stellar disk and an extended atmosphere with a previously unknown plume of surrounding gas

  • Betelgeuse Plume eso0927d

    Artist's rendering from ESO showing Betelgeuse with a gigantic bubble boiling on its surface and a radiant plume of gas being ejected to at least six photospheric radii or roughly the orbit of Neptune

  • ESO Paranal Platform

    Exterior view of ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Paranal, Chile

  • Eso-paranal-16

    Interior view of one of the four 8.2-meter Unit Telescopes at ESO's VLT

  • Nebula and betelgeuse VLT

    tiny red circle]] in the middle is the size of the photosphere.

  • Hertzsprung-Russel StarData

    Hertzsprung–Russell diagram identifying supergiants like Betelgeuse that have moved off the main sequence

  • Betelgeuse supernova

    Celestia depiction of Orion as it might appear from Earth when Betelgeuse explodes as a supernova


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Betelgeuse Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.