This symbol made with the Hubble House Telescope and launched through NASA on Aug. 10, 2020, presentations the big name Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, a crimson supergiant this is about 700 million gentle years from Earth.
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AP
This symbol made with the Hubble House Telescope and launched through NASA on Aug. 10, 2020, presentations the big name Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, a crimson supergiant this is about 700 million gentle years from Earth.
AP
It might not be your conventional eclipse, however a celestial tournament anticipated to happen for a fleeting few moments this week might nonetheless have you ever star-struck. An asteroid is slated to cross in entrance of the big name Betelgeuse and difficult to understand it Monday evening in an tournament identified to astronomers as an occultation. Mavens estimate the uncommon tournament will handiest happen for as many as 15 seconds, in step with House.com. Betelgeuse is a crimson supergiant positioned kind of 700 light-years from Earth and paperwork a part of the constellation Orion. At 10 million years outdated, Betelgeuse is considerably more youthful than our solar, however it is also about 700 occasions higher and seven,500 to fourteen,000 occasions brighter.
The asteroid 319 Leona is just about 50 kilometers vast and orbits between Mars and Jupiter. Astronomers say the occultation is greater than a trifling sight to behold and may in reality supply some new insights into each Betelgeuse and Leona.
“This sort of occultations are very helpful to constrain the form of the asteroid concerned,” Gianluca Masi, director of the Italy-based Digital Telescope Undertaking, mentioned in a observation. “Right here, we are hoping to even examine the outside of the concerned big name, too: Betelgeuse.” Sky & Telescope experiences that scientists might also be capable to use the occultation to map the big name’s “unusually huge convective cells,” which allow it to decorate and dim for months on finish.
The occultation will likely be visual in a slim strip of places the world over, together with Miami and the Florida Keys in addition to portions of Mexico, in step with a map at the web page OccultWatcher. Audience in portions of Europe and Asia will have to additionally be capable to see the development, which is predicted to happen at 8:16 EST. For sky-watchers positioned in different places, the Digital Telescope Undertaking plans to host a livestream.
