The flames of Betelgeuse
Thursday, June 23, 2011 - 06:30
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation of Orion, is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It is also one of the biggest, being almost the size of the orbit of Jupiter about four and half times the diameter of the Earth's orbit. The VLT image shows the surrounding nebula, which is much bigger than the supergiant itself, stretching 60 billion kilometres away from the star's surface about 400 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun.