86
2021
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
This variability was first documented by Sir John Herschel in the mid-nineteenth century. It is now thought that there may be three separate cycles of variability; and that the present dimming may simply be the coincidence of three periodic minima. Astronomers have studied the surface of Betelgeuse. It is a red supergiant, raging hot and fast and very near the end of its brief cosmic lifespan. In comparison, our own sun is a well-tended lantern in the darkness of space, burning steady and stable, generating just the right amount of heat and light and not too much heavy ion radiation. The skin of Betelgeuse boils deceptively slowly with convection cells much like those that cover the surface of our own sun but significantly larger. These alternating bright and dark cells are large enough to possibly explain the visible decrease in brightness if, for example, the surface facing us had a temporary preponderance of dark cells. Maybe Betelgeuse just belched out a lot of gas – stardust, that is – forming a dense cloud between us and the luminous surface and thus blocking much of its light.
Or, and this is the most exciting possibility, it may have burned its way up the fusion ladder, hydrogen nuclei combining to create helium and so on to heavier and heavier atoms, each step requiring more energy so that now it has reached iron. And when it gets to iron, Betelgeuse will have poisoned itself on its own fusion waste products. It will collapse and become a supernova. Or maybe it will become a black hole, ravenously sucking in any neighboring stars and their worlds, perhaps even forming the nucleus of a new galaxy. All these things, and others that we may not be able to fathom, are possible. One night, we drive home from a restaurant after dinner. Venus is low in the West. The stars are out. As you pull the car into the garage, I see Orion. “Wait,” I say. “Let me show you Betelgeuse.” We cling to each other and creep cautiously ten feet out onto the icy driveway, turn back, and look up. “See Orion? There?” I say. “Yes.” “Betelgeuse is one of his shoulders.” “The red one,” you say. Your eyes are better now
Running Man Nebula (astrophotograph) by Tim Christensen COURTESY OF THE ARTIST