Does the Brightening of Betelgeuse Portend The Immanent Occurrence of a New Galactic Supernova? Betelgeuse is at it again. Back in 2019, the red supergiant star, the bright and iconic right-shoulder of Orion had dimmed dramatically and uncharacteristically resulting in a flurry of speculation that the star was about to end its life in[…]
On August 8 and visible now during the summer, the faint cataclysmic variable star RS Ophiuchi at over 6,500 light-years distant brightened from magnitude 11.2 to 4.8 during the August 8-9, 2021 time frame. It went from a threshold small-telescope object to naked-eye visibility within 24 hours. Irish amateur Astronomer Keith Geary was the first[…]
Using the Keck Observatory’s Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) and DEep Imaging and Multi-Object Spectrograph (DEIMOS) attached to the 10 meter telescopes on Mauna Kea, we’ve observed a long-postulated, third type of supernova, an “Electron Capture” supernova. It is believed, based on composite imaging across multiple spectral regimes, the famous Crab Nebula may have been[…]
