I want to tell you a little story. Not too long, don't worry. It's not a story about something from my life either. It's the story of something bigger. A story of a star.
Next time when you're at the balcony of your home, or at the roof on a clear moonless cloudless night, look up to the stars. You'll find a strip of 3 stars in a line. Easy to recognize. Just a little far away from that strip is a fascinating star named Betelgeuse. It's a very special star to me. It's my favorite star. It's the 8th brightest star in the sky. But that's not why Betelguese is special.
Betelguese is a star which will explode one day. Stars are usually unstable. After the fuel inside them burns out, they either die quietly like our Sun will one day, or they go out with an explosion. Betelguese is one of the exploding types! This could happen anytime; anytime in the next million years that is. You see they die in a slow fashion and are unpredictable sometimes. Betelguese is 640 light years away from us. That means the most powerful telescopes on Earth will take 640 years after Betelguese’s demise to record its explosion. Ofcourse it could be happening right now and we wouldn't know in our lifetimes. Or it might've happened 639 years ago!
When Betelguese explodes, its light will light up our sky. It will outshine everything apart from the Sun. It'll be the only star visible during the day and the moon will seem dark compared to it. It'll stay like that for 2-3 months. A very special time for Earth.
But this is still not why Betelguese is special.
When Betelguese explodes, it will send off 2 gamma rays bursts in the sky. Luckily, its rotational axis is not pointing towards our solar system. This means, we'll only see it exploding. We won't be harmed due to the explosion. Had the axis pointed anywhere near the Earth, all plants would've died, the soil would've been contaminated because of the radiation and all electronic devices would’ve gone dead. Betelguese is only going to be a subject of beauty for Earth. But there are other stars out there, we don't know. Others which might explode anytime. Which might have already exploded. Which might be pointing at us. A gamma ray burst might hit you tomorrow, or next year, or your child after you die, or may not hit the Earth ever at all. No one can tell. But it makes me think how fragile life is. Something from so far away might kill us all just because we were unlucky enough to fall in its path. So when I look up at Betelguese, I think about the other stars just waiting to kill us. I think about life just waiting to end. I think about the little time I have to fulfil my destiny. It does not allow me to think small. It forces me to work hard. It asks me to follow only what I truly believe in and I do it without a question. Next time when you see Betelguese, ask yourself if you'd live the way you are living had it pointed towards you. You'll get your answers.
Vishal Gupta
December 2012
