The curious case of Betelgeuse

van Loon, Jacco Th.

Abstract

Betelgeuse is the nearest red supergiant, one of the brightest stars in our sky, and statistically speaking it would be expected to be “typical”. Yet it exhibits many features that seem “curious”, to say the least. For instance it has a high proper motion. It rotates fast. It has little dust. It dimmed unexpectedly. Is any of these, and other, phenomena atypical, and taken together does it make Betelgeuse atypical? This is important to know, because we need to know whether Betelgeuse might be a prototype of red supergiants in general, or certain subclasses of red supergiants, since we can study it in such great detail. It is also important to know as it may be a link to understanding other, apparently atypical cases such as supernova 1987A, and maybe even such exotica as Thorne-Żytkov objects. Studying this question in itself helps us understand how we deal with rarity and coincidence in understanding the Universe we live in.

Citation

van Loon, J. T. (2023). The curious case of Betelgeuse. In The Sixteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics, and Relativistic Field Theories (In 4 Volumes). https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811269776_0289

• Conference Name: Proceedings of the MG16 Meeting on General Relativity
• Conference Location: Online
• Start Date: Jul 5, 2021
• End Date: Jul 10, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jan 24, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-02
• Deposit Date: Jul 17, 2024
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
• Book Title: The Sixteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics, and Relativistic Field Theories (In 4 Volumes)
• ISBN: 978-981-12-6976-9
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811269776_0289
• Keywords: Red supergiants; stellar variability; dust formation; supernova progenitors; Philosophy of Science; Betelgeuse
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/876848
• Publisher URL: https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/10.1142/9789811269776_0289
• Additional Information: https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/13149#t=aboutBook