Beetlejuice, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse

Not rocket science

- SIBUSISO BIYELA

Here’s a fun iDea: if yOu DO a headstand tonight and look towards the east, you can see Betelgeuse (colloquially pro-nounced Beetlejuice, like the 1988 Tim Burton comedy-horror classic), the left shoulder of the Orion constellation. The star glows red, is fairly bright and if its recent behaviour is anything to go by, it might explode tonight... or in half a million years.

Over the past few months, this red star has been reducing in brightness to the point that avid stargazers can now notice it dimming with the naked eye, like a candle sizzling at the end of its wick. A lot of stars die a dramatic death in the form of a supernova, some of the most powerful explosions in the universe, and Betelgeuse might be well on its way to giving us a good light show.

At a hefty 15-times the mass of our sun, the “Juice” is the James Dean of stars: its excessive use of its fuel gives it a very short lifespan no more than 10 million years. Our sun, Sol, which is halfway through its 10-billion-year lifespan, is far more frugal with its fuel spend.