Page 10 - All About Space 68 - 2017 UK

LAUNCH PAD

YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THE UNIVERSE

Betelgeuse snapped

from the ground

This orange blob is nearby red supergiant Betelgeuse as imaged
© ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/E. O’Gorman/P. Kervella Atacama desert of northern Chile. This image is the highest-
for the first time by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter
Array (ALMA), an interferometer of radio telescopes in the
resolution picture of Betelgeuse available.
One of the largest known stars, the supergiant star is about
1,400 times larger than the Sun and 600 light years away in
the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). The red supergiant
burns brightly, which causes it to have a short life expectancy
– at just about eight million years old, the star is already on the

10 verge of becoming supernova.