Betelgeuse is a red supergiant that has evolved from an O-type main-sequence star. After core hydrogen exhaustion, Betelgeuse evolved into a blue supergiant before evolving into its current red supergiant form. Its core will eventually collapse, producing a supernova explosion and leaving behind a compact remnant.

Finding Betelgeuse

BETELGEUSE BETELGEUSE BETEL—

Maybe this will help:

The Sun: It is one million times the size of Earth. If the earth were the size of a golf ball, the sun would be 15 feet in diameter.

2. Betelegeuse: It is twice the size of the earth’s orbit around the sun. If the earth were the size of a golf ball, Betelgeuse would be the height of six Empire State Buildings stacked on top of one another. 262 trillion earths can fit inside this star.

3. Mu Cephei: It is 3,000 light years away. If the earth were the size of a golf ball, Mu Cephei would be the width of two Golden Gate Bridges from end to end. 2.7 quadrillion earths can fit inside of this star.

How can you define quadrillion?
1 million seconds ago = 12 days ago
1 billion seconds ago = 1975
1 trillion seconds ago = 29,700 B.C.
1 quadrillion seconds ago = 30,800,000 years ago

4. Canus Majorus (the Big Dog star): If the earth were the size of a golf ball, Canus Majorus would be the height of Mount Everest. SEVEN quadrillion earths can fit inside of this star. That number would cover the state of Texas 22 inches deep in golf balls.

(From a talk by Louis Giglio)

>> ^lighthouse:
I understand the primary point of this video is to play badass industrial techno and show the enormity of space and all but it is scientifically misleading. These stars are point sources of light and can not be photometrically resolved. All those pretty pictures of marbles in this video are images of the sun, our sun, taken in different wavelengths (e.g. uv, x-ray, etc.), and then digitally shaded in visible colors. Upvote for giant stars with crazy names though.


Your point that they are artistically texturing the stars is correct, but your claim that the stars have too small an angular diameter to resolve is incorrect. For some massive stars it is possible

This wikipedia page has a picture of one of the stars, Betelgeuse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse

Here's a picture of R Doradus from 12 years ago:
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-1997/pr-05-97.html

Cool? Hell yeah. Coolest in the universe? I don't know. I saw one on Betelgeuse 5 that was pretty nifty. It had free snacks.

As you may know Ive created a playlist of many of the dead videos on the sift. As its been there for awhile, and there have been quite a few views of it, very few vids have been fixed or discarded. I thought a list just of yours might be of some help. The list below are all your videos on my playlist. There may be a few errors, but I gave it my best shot.

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Beetles--Letter-B-Classic-Sesame-Street
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Original-Mahna-Mahna-1969
http://www.videosift.com/video/Bobby-Badfingersyes-hes-serious
http://www.videosift.com/video/Betelgeuses-Sales-Pitch
http://www.videosift.com/video/Carol-Burnett-crashes-the-Match-Game
http://www.videosift.com/video/Sean-at-the-Office-Mad-TV
http://www.videosift.com/video/Kriss-Kross-Jump
http://www.videosift.com/video/Stewie-tap-dances-with-Gene-Kelly
http://www.videosift.com/video/Ashlee-Simpson-at-the-Orange-Bowl-mercifully-short
http://www.videosift.com/video/Monty-Python-Management-Training-Interview