Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is the bright star representing the constellation Orion's right shoulder, assuming Orion pictures a man who is facing us. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant with spectral type M2Iab and is among the larger and more luminous stars known. Characteristics:

• Orion - constellation.
• 05h55m10.30536s - right ascension.
• +07deg24m25.4304s - declination.
• +0.50 - apparent magnitude.
• 168 pc - distance.
• M1-M2 Ia-ab - spectral type.
• 14-19 - mass(solar).
• 87100 - luminosity(solar).
• 764 - radius(solar).
• +1.85 - B-V color index.

Betelgeuse is near the end of the short lifetime of a massive star and is thought likely to supernova within the next 100,000 years. Astronomers occasionally casually/humorously refer to the possibility that it will supernova any time now, but its state of evolution is not so precisely known as to make that likely. It generally shows somewhat periodic variation (on the order of a magnitude) but a longer and deeper reduction in brightness from November 2019 to March 2020 (the Great Dimming) produced speculation regarding its current state.