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Sep 15, 2022

Astronomers can now predict an oncoming supernova just a few years in advance

Posted by in category: cosmology

We’re looking at you, Betelgeuse.

A team of astronomers believes they have found an effective method for predicting a supernova, a report from Space.com reveals. While stars do expand to massive sizes and become red giants before their demise, we have had no way of knowing how long it will take for a red giant to go supernova. It could take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years.

All of that has just changed though, thanks to a team of astronomers that has devised a method for spotting stars that are likely to supernova within only a few years — a tiny fraction of time in the context of astronomy.

Going supernova.


Coffeekai/iStock.

While stars do expand to massive sizes and become red giants before their demise, we have had no way of knowing how long it will take for a red giant to go supernova. It could take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years.

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