⭐ Star
Betelgeuse
A red supergiant in Orion that will one day explode.
- Size
- about 760 times wider than the Sun
- Surface temperature
- 3,300 °C
- Distance
- 550 light-years away
Did you know?
- If it sat where our Sun is, it would swallow Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
- When it explodes it may shine as bright as a half Moon for weeks. That could be any time in the next 100,000 years.
Find it in the sky
Photographed or visited by
Gaia
Mapped nearly two billion stars, then switched itself off.
The life of a starA step in a star’s life: a huge, heavy star
Compare Betelgeuse with EarthSide by side, to scale, in the app
More NASA photos of BetelgeuseStraight from NASA’s image library, in the app
Explore more
All of deep space
The Sun
Our star, an ordinary one that keeps everything here alive.
Alpha Centauri
The closest star system to the Sun.
Eta Carinae
A pair of giant stars, one of them about 90 times heavier than the Sun.
Mira
A red giant star racing through space with a tail like a comet.
Zeta Ophiuchi
A runaway star, flung out when its partner exploded.
Pistol Star
One of the brightest stars known in our galaxy, hidden behind dust.