Why it may not be as soon as you think

By Madison Schick

Betelgeuse is a star that sits on the shoulder of the Orion constellation. Since it is 1,000 times the size of our sun, we can see it shine from 640 light years away. Classified as a Red Supergiant, it’s one of the brightest stars in the sky, but concerns of it dimming are leading some to conclude it’s about to supernova.

High mass stars do tend to have shorter life-spans than small/medium sized stars like our sun, therefore stars like Betelgeuse only live for millions of years whilst our sun can live for billions. Scientists have started to talk about how Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its life, but in reality the end is still about a million years away. 

Betelgeuse is a variable star, meaning it dims and brightens in periods over the years.