On 23/01/2020 11:38 am, Alain Fournier wrote:
As you have probably heard, the star Betelgeuse has been dimming lately.
For now I consider this more of an interesting curiosity than anything
else. But it just seems to just keep on dimming. See for instance
https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse#/media/File:Betelgeuse_AAVSO_2019.jpg

Does anyone around here have some knowledge about what is going on? Is
there some threshold under which one can say that this isn't just normal
variations? I mean if the magnitude of Betelgeuse went all the way to
3.0, I would be getting excited about this. But that 3.0 is just a
number I pulled out of thin air. Does someone more knowledgeable have a
more significant number beyond which the luminosity variation is
indicating more dramatic variations?

Any other comments on this?


Alain Fournier

Well, we're all hoping that it's about to go supernova, of coure.

But I don't think anyone can give you a definite answer, because that
would imply a certain knowledge about whether it will go supernova now,
or not.

Perhaps this is what a star does for tens of thousands of years before
it goes bang.

Sylvia.