Where is betelgeuse star

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation of Orion, abruptly darkened in late , early The behaviour led many to speculate that it might be about to explode. Even if you can't name many points in the sky, you'll definitely know Betelgeuse by sight. It's the orange dot in the top-left corner of Orion - or bottom-right, if you're viewing the constellation in the Southern Hemisphere.

Close to Earth, relatively speaking, at a distance of about light-years, Betelgeuse is what's known as a semi-regular variable star. It naturally brightens and darkens over a period of roughly days. But what happened 18 months ago was out of the ordinary. The loss of brightness was far greater than anything previously recorded. It has the resolution to directly image the surface of Betelgeuse.

More recently though, studies suggest that the star has stopped dimming and may actually be beginning to brighten. Red supergiants however are stars that are close to the end of their life and it is estimated by astronomers that Betelgeuse might end its life in a supernova explosion in the next ten to hundred thousand years.

When this happens, it will send its store of heavy elements into our galaxy. The radius of Betelgeuse is thought to be around a thousand times greater than the sun and would reach beyond the orbit of Jupiter if it was placed at the center of our solar system.

The following image by the European Southern Observatory shows the size comparison of Betelgeuse compared to the planets in our solar system. The overlaid annotation shows how large the star is compared to our Solar System. One particularly intriguing observation found a massive hotspot, the cause of which is still unknown, according to the European Space Agency. During its current dimming spree, you can track Betelgeuse's activity and submit your observations to the American Association of Variable Star Observers to help the group gather more information on its variability.

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Elizabeth Howell is a contributing writer for Space. She is the author or co-author of several books on space exploration.