Betelgeuse engulfs Companion

Feb 20, 2020
2
2
15
Visit site
Being new around here, hope to not break any rules. There was an article I just read that seems to be closed without comment and I wanted to discuss it. I'm not an astronomer or astrophysicist, so what I think may not agree with accepted "norms" I did read the rules and feeling like being out on thin ice in spring, but here goes.
I don't have any problem accepting that Betelgeuse merged with a star similar to our own, only bigger. The rub will come when I suggest that the "swallowed" star hasn't been digested quite yet. If it had, wouldn't Betelgeuse have backed up the aging progression of stars and become "younger"? A red giant the size of Betelgeuse would have no problem harboring a star in It's outer/cooler "cloud" orbiting each other as binary stars for quite awhile. The gravity of the giant's core would strip off material, giving the old dying star a fill up so to say. @ some point the mass of the companion diminishes to a point where the mutual orbit becomes unstable,misshapen and the ellipse allows the draining companion to head out to the outside boundary of the giant, even causing it to loose it's round shape. When this old companion finally ends up merging with the giant's core, there might be some fireworks, maybe not a supernova. This is conjecture, hope it's okay...
Pete
 
  • Like
Reactions: Carol Cleon
Nov 27, 2019
49
11
1,555
Visit site
Being new around here, hope to not break any rules. There was an article I just read that seems to be closed without comment and I wanted to discuss it. I'm not an astronomer or astrophysicist, so what I think may not agree with accepted "norms" I did read the rules and feeling like being out on thin ice in spring, but here goes.
I don't have any problem accepting that Betelgeuse merged with a star similar to our own, only bigger. The rub will come when I suggest that the "swallowed" star hasn't been digested quite yet. If it had, wouldn't Betelgeuse have backed up the aging progression of stars and become "younger"? A red giant the size of Betelgeuse would have no problem harboring a star in It's outer/cooler "cloud" orbiting each other as binary stars for quite awhile. The gravity of the giant's core would strip off material, giving the old dying star a fill up so to say. @ some point the mass of the companion diminishes to a point where the mutual orbit becomes unstable,misshapen and the ellipse allows the draining companion to head out to the outside boundary of the giant, even causing it to loose it's round shape. When this old companion finally ends up merging with the giant's core, there might be some fireworks, maybe not a supernova. This is conjecture, hope it's okay...
Pete
I’m just a layman who reads a lot and loves all kinds of science. I like your theory. It makes sense to me that the consumed star would make the deformation in Betelgeuse. I really enjoyed reading all the steps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Peter Larsen
Being new around here, hope to not break any rules. There was an article I just read that seems to be closed without comment and I wanted to discuss it. I'm not an astronomer or astrophysicist, so what I think may not agree with accepted "norms" I did read the rules and feeling like being out on thin ice in spring, but here goes.
I don't have any problem accepting that Betelgeuse merged with a star similar to our own, only bigger. The rub will come when I suggest that the "swallowed" star hasn't been digested quite yet. If it had, wouldn't Betelgeuse have backed up the aging progression of stars and become "younger"? A red giant the size of Betelgeuse would have no problem harboring a star in It's outer/cooler "cloud" orbiting each other as binary stars for quite awhile. The gravity of the giant's core would strip off material, giving the old dying star a fill up so to say. @ some point the mass of the companion diminishes to a point where the mutual orbit becomes unstable,misshapen and the ellipse allows the draining companion to head out to the outside boundary of the giant, even causing it to loose it's round shape. When this old companion finally ends up merging with the giant's core, there might be some fireworks, maybe not a supernova. This is conjecture, hope it's okay...
Pete

Peter, do you remember the source of the article or any clues about the source?
Hartmann352
 
Folks: Head over to site: Space.com, Forums, New Posts, and view Stellarwest's post "Betelgeuse will be Visible as a Supernova in March of 2025" and all of the extensive comments. This thread is an example of "The Big Boys" playing in the Big Boy sandbox". It is rich in information, references and calculations; well worth the look and read time.
 
The Betelgeuse Project: Constraints from Rotation

J. Craig Wheeler,1., S. Nance,1., M. Diaz,1. , S. G. Smith,1., J. Hickey,1.; L. Zhou,2.; M. Koutoulaki,3.; J. M. Sullivan 1.; J. M. Fowler, 4.

1.Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
2.Department of Physics, Tsinghua University,
3.Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
4.Tufts University

This is the paper which explains the idea behind Betelgeuse swallowing of the one solar mass companion.

See: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1611.08031.pdf

Hartmann352
 
Last edited:

Latest posts