Recently astrophysics, watching the red supergiant Betelgeuse, found around it a few dust arcs. Most likely, it traces emissions of material at different stages of the evolution of stars. In addition, it was found oblong object whose nature is as yet unclear. However, it is clear that the star could face him over 12 million years.

The star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion not be called a small and inconspicuous - this red giant, which is located at a distance from 495 to 640 light years from our Solar system, has a mass of 17 the sun, and its diameter is greater than that of our luminary about 950-1000 time. And the luminosity of the star is very powerful - it is more than that of the Sun in 80-105 thousand times. In addition, Betelgeuse is one of the biggest astronomers stars - if you put it in place of the Sun, at a minimum, it would fill the orbit of Mars, and at a maximum of Jupiter.

However, even such a giant that is hurtling through the Universe at a speed of about 30 miles per second, also has its little secrets. For example, it is still unknown what stage of its evolution remains the star. The traditional version is like Betelgeuse, of which only about 10 million years, is already in the phase of burning out of carbon and therefore will undergo a supernova explosion within one to two thousand years. About it, according to scientists, shows the current variability glow of this light.

On this basis it should be assumed that the phase of red giant star entered a long time ago - at least several tens of thousands of years ago. However, in the 80-ies of the last century there was another point of view on the evolution of the stars. Moreover, it was expressed not astrophysics, and... archaeologists. In fact, during the excavations in Northern China experts from China were found reports of the court of astronomers, dated to the first century BC. One of them is explicit that the color of Betelgeuse at that time was white or yellow (staromiejska language of these two colors were often marked by one and the same character).

However, at the same time, we know the message of Ptolemy, Dating II century ad, in which he describes Betelgeuse as the red star. So, its transformation, during which the yellow dwarf dropped her shell of dust and gas and has become a red giant, there are about two thousand years ago! All this has forced Chinese astronomer Fang Li Zhi to assume that really Betelgeuse has just entered the stage of a red giant to supernova explosion will occur not less than three-five tens of thousands of years.

Another mystery Betelgeuse is the existence around her gas-dust nebulae, which could not see because of the fact that it overshadows the light of the stars. However, when such is still found, you still have a question - whether this nebula remains unset shell, or have a different origin? However, recently specialists, working on the telescope "Herschel", had a good view of some parts of the nebula in infrared spectrum and to answer some questions.

So, what is going on around a red giant? Astrophysicists have seen a number of dust arc in the direction of motion of the star. They are witnesses of the violent history of emissions of material from the star. Interestingly, closer to the star inner part dropped her shell demonstrates a pronounced asymmetrical structure. And large convection cells in the outer atmosphere of the star probably had led in the past to local "lumpy" dust emissions at different stages of the history of Betelgeuse.

So, it turns out that a significant part of the nebula formed by material thrown shell and substance that the star was later thrown out. However, this is not all. The fact that a little further from the stars, dust arcs, is an interesting line education. Early hypotheses explained this band release of the material in the previous phase of stellar evolution, but a new image analysis suggests that it is either something to do with the magnetic field of the Galaxy, or the edge of a nearby interstellar clouds lit by the light emanating from Betelgeuse.

Thus, if we assume that this band is a separate object, whereas the movement of Betelgeuse and its arches, and the distance between them and the band, we can predict that the arc will face her just five thousand years. Well, and the red supergiant runs into this mysterious education about 12,5 thousand years later. But what if this happens, alas, they did not understand.

At the same time, so far, astronomers can not accurately determine the nature of this mysterious object. So they continue to study Betelgeuse is not excluded that new data will be able to solve a new mystery supergiant...