Astronomers at Louisiana State University are offering an explanation for abnormal changes in the brightness of Betelgeuse, a red supergiant that they believe has swallowed another star. In his article published on the Preprint server arXivScientists presented the results of their research.
By simulating the merger of a star with 16 solar masses and a smaller star with four solar masses, and also taking into account the mass of Betelgeuse, estimated at 16-19 solar masses, scientists found that as they approached and receded: In a common shell, the smaller The star merges with the helium nucleus of a larger companion. This results in an exchange of orbital and thermal energy, ultimately causing a pulse to propagate from the star’s core to its surface.
In some cases, mass loss also occurs during coalescence. This occurs due to the release of gravitational energy, which turns into kinetic energy and causes the outflow of matter. The model shows that the mass loss could reach 0.6 Earth masses. Gas can move at speeds of up to 200-300 kilometers per second.
Evidence of Betelgeuse merging with another star can be seen at its high rotation rate of about 5.5 kilometers per second, while the Sun’s rotation speed is only 2 kilometers per second. This corresponds to the merger of a large main sequence star with a mass of about 15-17 million Earth masses and a smaller main sequence star with a mass of about 1-4 million Earth masses.
The Hubble Space Telescope observed intensely heated material moving through Betelgeuse’s atmosphere at 322 thousand kilometers per hour between October and November 2019. A month later, this decrease in brightness in Betelgeuse’s southern hemisphere was recorded by several ground-based telescopes. As of February 2020, the star had lost more than two-thirds of its brightness, fueling speculation that Betelgeuse could go supernova.
Artificial intelligence has been successfully used before to create and classified the supernova.