28066859 Astronomers have weighed Betelgeuse
Astronomers have estimated the mass of Betelgeuse – it is about 13 solar masses. Article appears in the anthology The 9th Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics, and its preprint available at arXiv.org. Despite the fact that Betelgeuse was discovered long ago, still do not know the distance to it and the exact weight. For example, according to various models of the red supergiant (this class is a star) is located at a distance of 180 to 1,300 light-years. Similarly, way different ways of estimating the mass showing results 10 to 20 solar masses. In the new study, scientists simulated the evolution of massive stars. As it turned out, the ratio of mass and radius that depends on the speed with which the brightness of the stellar disk decreases closer to the edge. This option, scientists have determined, based on observational data and the assumptions that the star is located about 650 light years from Earth. More recently, astronomers from the European Southern Observatory issued a photograph nebulae around Betelgeuse in high definition. The average radius of the nebula, consisting mainly of silicates and aluminum oxide, is 400 astronomical units (the distance from Earth to the sun).
