What's going on with Betelgeuse dimming? Short version: It's all happening in the envelope, not in the core. Red Super Giant pulsations + interaction with giant convective cells. Will it explode? Very likely, but in the next 100 000 yrs or so... Long version follows
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From everything I've read so far on Betelgeuse, the thinking is that it has ~100k years left but due to some uncertainty in models, it could go at any time. It's not that it can't go supernova now, it's just that it probably won't.
I believe the star has to start fusing ....
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silicon and then we'll probably see a spike in neutrino emissions at Icecube, etc. which should be extremely high. That star probably has less than 24 hours once it starts fusing silicon as its primary fuel source.
I believe it's in the carbon phase right now but could be wrong
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Hm? Does this imply that any RSG about to go supernova in our stellar neighborhood would announce itself in neutrino flux some 24h before the show starts? That would be a wild prospect. Does the current instrumentation lend itself to so fast reaction times?
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Great questions. I've been trying to find out if there is any publicly available raw data for neutrino detection events. When Betelgeuse is about to pop, we should get a few hours advanced notice if we see a spike in neutrinos coming from that general area.
Can we have direction finding with neutrinos? Probability of interaction is so low that difference of arrival time is surely of no use. Individual events should have directional properties.
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I believe direction can be determined by combining detection events from multiple facilities around the world -- It should at least narrow down what region of the sky the neutrinos came from. I doubt you could pinpoint it to a specific star but maybe the constellation, etc.
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