Seeing the Hand of the Central One

Astronomers have captured the clearest images of one of most luminous and mysterious stars in the sky

In the constellation Orion 640 light-years away there is a red supergiant star a few million years old called Betelgeuse. It is a red supergiant, the largest kind of known stars (by volume, not mass) in the universe.

Emitting a light the strength of 100,000 Suns, Betelgeuse is the ninth brightest star in the night sky, shedding massive amounts of material at an extremely accelerated rate.

How it does this has been a mystery to science. But now, according to a July 29 press release issued by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), astronomers have captured the sharpest-ever views of this massive star, views that could help solve this mystery.

"Betelgeuse is already nearing the end of its life and is soon doomed to explode as a supernova," according to the ESO release. "When it does, the supernova should be seen easily from Earth, even in broad daylight."

The name "Betelgeuse" is a corruption of the Arabic term meaning "hand of the central one." Whether or not humans will be around to witness the massive supernova event, this supergiant will certainly live up to its name -- especially in death.

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image: This artist's impression shows the supergiant star Betelgeuse as it was revealed thanks to different state-of-the-art techniques on ESO's Very Large Telescope, which allowed two independent teams of astronomers to obtain the sharpest ever views of the supergiant star Betelgeuse. They show that the star has a vast plume of gas almost as large as our Solar System and a gigantic bubble boiling on its surface. These discoveries provide important clues to help explain how these mammoths shed material at such a tremendous rate. (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada)