What is Betelgeuse and why will it explode?

Betelgeuse is a Class M Red Supergiant star, and is approximately 100,000 times more luminous as our sun. It is suspected that Betelgeuse lost a large part of its surface material in this remarkable event. In fact, the amount of material ejected is the single largest SME event we've ever seen on a star, in modern astronomy. Dr. Devika Kamath who is an Astrophysicist and Lecturer in Astronomy & Astrophysics at Macquarie University explains more.

Betelgeuse star against starry sky artistic vision, elements of this image furnished by NASA. Inset Dr Devika Credit: Getty/Devika

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