Betelgeuse, the famous red supergiant star that has gained a lot of attention over the years
ever since it was discovered that it would one day explode in a spectacular event
known as a supernova.
This powerful spectacle would light up the nights sky for weeks, possibly months and may
even be visible during the day. But when will this magnificent celestial light show occur?
Well, scientists predict it will happen anytime between right now, and 100 thousand years.
The moment a Supernova occurs is very difficult to predict as this lengthy time scale indicates,
but it's not just Betelgeuse that is expected to explode. Other stars,
are also on the verge of going supernova within a certain timescale.
So let's take a look at some candidates that according to scientists are at the
latter stages of their lives and that will one day explode in a magnificent supernova that
will provide the human race with a spectacular light show, visible with just the naked eye.
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In our galaxy, the Milky Way, which contains billions of stars,
it is estimated that a supernova occurs every 50 to 100 years,
however, those that are visible with just the naked eye are exceedingly rare.
The most recent supernova to be seen in the Milky Way with just the naked eye was in 1604
and was named, Kepler's supernova, after the famous Johannes Kepler,
who made detailed observations of the natural phenomenon for more than a year.
This is an image of the remnant of that exact event,
that was seen around the globe over 400 years ago.
Within the universe, however, supernovae are not rare, because there are billions of galaxies,
containing billions of stars and so it has been estimated that dozens of these stars are exploding
every second, occasionally even allowing scientists to study them as they occur.
One such example, is the supernova that occurred in 1987 from within a satellite Galaxy,
named the Large Magellanic Cloud. This event
blazed with the power of 100 million suns for several months following its discovery
and has provided an incredible insight into the last stages of stellar evolution.
Although Betelgeuse is a likely candidate for a naked eye supernova event within the Milky Way,
many other stars are also expected to explode in the near future, creating a powerful flash
that someday will light up our night's sky in a dazzling celestial show that exposes the final
moments of a star's existence. The only question is, will we still be around to witness it.
550 light-years away, the supergiant star Antares can be seen shining boldly as
the brightest star within the fishhook pattern of the Scorpius constellation.
Distinctly red in colour when viewed with the naked eye,
this star is so enormous that if it was placed at the centre of the solar system it would
reach somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, swallowing all the inner rocky planets.
Antares is a part of a binary system, the primary star being the red supergiant
and its companion Antares B, being a smaller main-sequence star.
At a young age of only 11 million years old, it is expected, that like Betelguese,
Antares will almost certainly explode as a supernova within the next 100 thousand years,
although theoretically, it could happen tomorrow.
For a few months, the Antares supernova could be as bright as the full moon
and visible during the day.
More than 7,500 light-years away, a volatile star can be found, in the constellation of Carina.
It is called Eta carinae and as you can see from this incredible image, it once experienced
a giant outburst thousands of years ago, but was only seen in our skies about 150 years ago.
During this titanic blast, it released almost as much energy as a supernova
explosion becoming the second brightest star in our night's sky,
before fading away to the point where it is now barely visible to the unaided eye.
Somehow, however, the star survived this great eruption,
and now resides at the centre of this hot cloud of expanding gas and dust.
There is still a lot of mystery surrounding Eta Carinae, but one thing astronomers are fairly
certain of, is that in the near future it will explode in a final show that will far outshine
any of its previous blasts. Nobody can say for sure when this magnificent event will occur, in
fact, it may have already happened, since it would take around 7500 years for its light to reach us.
Naked eye supernovas are clearly, incredibly rare,
but it's not just Antares, Betelgeuse and Eta Carinae that are on the verge of going supernova,
many other stars across the Milky Way are getting closer to their grand finale, although
they probably won't explode for many hundreds of thousands of years yet. These next possible
naked eye supernovas will likely be watched by humans thousands of years in the future.
Before we look at any more potential supernova events,
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860 light-years away, a supergiant star called Rigel can easily be seen in the night's sky
as a bluey-white colour, located at the bottom of the Orion hunters leg.
It is much hotter than the sun, producing about 120,000 times more energy and hidden within
its bright glare are two smaller companion stars that can only be seen using a powerful telescope.
Rigel is in the latter stages of its stellar life, even though it is only estimated to be seven to
nine million years old and someday, within the next few million years or so, it will light up
the nights sky, before disappearing from one of our most recognisable constellations forever.
At 460 light-years away Alpha Lupi, which is a blue giant star can be found in the
constellation of Lupus, which means Wolf in Latin.
As the brightest star in this constellation, Alpha Lupi can be seen marking the Wolf's rear paw
and once again, is a binary star system. It is the oldest star in this list, estimated to be
between 16-20 million years old, but even at this age and at 11 times the mass of the sun,
this star is not on its way out just yet. Because it is still expected by
scientists to grow brighter and bigger before exploding within a few million years or so.
250 light-years away, Spica the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo can be found.
Again this is a binary system, although its companion star is extremely close,
causing gravitational forces to pull them into an egg shape, rather than keeping them spherical.
At only 12.5 million years old, Spica has been calculated to have only just
entered the final stages of life, but at a mass of over 10 times that of the sun,
it is expected to go supernova within a few million years.
The closest future naked eye supernova will possibly be a star called IK Pegasi. This
strange binary star system can be located at the edge of the constellation of Pegasus and
the reason it is strange, is because the primary star, named IK Pegasi A is a main-sequence star,
much like the sun, while its companion is a small, dense white dwarf, a remnant of an ancient star.
This partnership means that when IK Pegasi A evolves into a red giant towards the
end of its life cycle, the white dwarf, named IK Pegasi B will begin to consume
its partner as it expands. When the white dwarf has accumulated enough mass from the red giant,
it might collapse in on itself and explode as a rare type of supernova.
However, it is thought that if this does occur, it will take
millions of years before we get to see the final show.
So there we have it, 6 incredible future astronomical events that
will one day provide the people of earth with a light display
second to none. Will we get to see one of these amazing events? Only time will tell,
but none the less it's still amazing to imagine what these majestic shows will look like.
If you enjoyed this video and would like to see more then tap the like button and subscribe
and remember to keep an eye on the sky, because you never know, tonight may well be the night when
we get to see a supernova. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you all next time.