Betelgeuse

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/betelgeuse

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How heavy is Betelgeuse?Approximately 10–20 solar masses
2. What is the stellar classification?Red Supergiant (M1-2 Ia-Iab)
3. What is the bayer designation?Alpha Orionis (α Ori)
4. What is Betelgeuse and why is it so big?Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star in the Orion constellation. It is about 640 to 764 times the size of our Sun, so huge it would swallow planets if it were in our solar system.
5. How bright is Betelgeuse and how does its brightness change?It is the second brightest star in Orion and usually the tenth brightest you can see from Earth. Its brightness can vary from magnitude +0.0 to +1.6, and it dimmed from 0.5 to 1.7 between October 2019 and February 2020.

Red Supergiant: A highly evolved, massive star characterized by its large radius, low surface temperature, and immense luminosity.
Supernova: A catastrophic stellar explosion resulting from the gravitational collapse or runaway nuclear fusion of a star.
Light-Year: The astronomical unit of distance equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year in a vacuum.
Angular Diameter: The angle subtended by the diameter of an object as seen from a specific point, indicating its apparent size in the sky.