
When Betelgeuse Explodes, It's Going to Take Out Another Star
Despite its self-destructive proclivities, the irritable giant has managed to make, and keep, a friend.
On Monday, a team of astronomers announced that they had spotted another star hewing extremely close to Betelgeuse. So close, in fact, that the second star plows through the tenuous outer atmosphere of the red supergiant.
The two objects make for a strange pair. Unlike Betelgeuse, which is approaching the end of its life, the blue-white companion (or Betelbuddy) has yet to start burning hydrogen in its core. In other words, the star hasn't entered the chapter of its life known as the main sequence — one that characterizes many stars, including our own.
'You have a star that is about to die, and it's being orbited by a star that's not fully born,' said Miguel Montargès, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory who was not involved with the new research.
'Isn't that crazy?' said Steve B. Howell, a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in California and one of the discoverers of the companion star. 'It's kind of crazy.'
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Watch two meteor showers at once: Best time to see the Delta Aquariids and Capricornids
The Brief The Southern Delta Aquariid and Alpha Capricornid meteor showers will both peak early July 30. Each shower could produce around a dozen visible meteors per hour under dark skies. Viewing is expected to be ideal due to a dim, quarter-full moon and clear summer conditions. Stargazers are in for a treat as two meteor showers will peak at the same time before dawn on July 30, creating a rare summer sky double feature. The Southern Delta Aquariid and Alpha Capricornid meteor showers are expected to produce a combined total of up to two dozen visible meteors per hour in areas with dark skies and minimal light pollution. Because the moon will be just a quarter full, its light shouldn't interfere much with visibility. "Look for flashes of light in the night sky," said Thaddeus LaCoursiere, planetarium program coordinator at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota. He described both showers as "very nice classic meteor showers." What is a meteor shower? The backstory Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through debris trails left by comets—tiny fragments of dust and rock that burn up upon entering our atmosphere. The Southern Delta Aquariids come from the comet 96P/Machholz. The Alpha Capricornids originate from comet 169P/NEAT. As the fragments hit the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, the friction causes them to heat up and glow, sometimes producing streaks known as "shooting stars." What we know Both meteor showers are already active and will remain visible through August 12, with the early morning of July 30 expected to offer the best viewing. The Alpha Capricornids tend to feature slower meteors that leave lingering tails, according to Nick Moskovitz of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. No special equipment is needed—just find a dark, clear location and look up. What we don't know Exact meteor counts can vary depending on conditions. Cloud cover, haze, and local light pollution may reduce visibility. It's also uncertain how widespread the viewing conditions will be across the U.S. on July 30, depending on regional weather forecasts. What you can do To see the meteor showers: Head outdoors in the early morning hours before dawn. Choose a spot away from city lights with an unobstructed view of the sky. Let your eyes adjust to the darkness and avoid looking at your phone—it ruins your night vision. No binoculars or telescopes needed; wide views of the sky work best. What's next If you miss this week's peak, don't worry—the Perseids, one of the most anticipated meteor showers of the year, will peak in mid-August and often deliver much higher rates of visible meteors. The Source This article is based on reporting from the Associated Press and includes expert commentary from the Bell Museum and the Lowell Observatory. Meteor activity data comes from NASA and the International Meteor Organization. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
2 summer meteor showers peak soon. When is the best time to see Perseid in Mississippi?
If you haven't caught a glimpse of a shooting star yet in July, it's not too late. In fact, the best nights to see the most are happening soon. There are three meteor showers visible over Mississippi now, and the showy fireballs and falling stars will continue until late August. Two of the celestial shows will peak about the same time in late July, but you'll still have weeks to stargaze and catch a peek. The Perseid is the most famous. It runs from about July 17 to Aug. 23, according to the American Meteor Society. The alpha Capricornids are in progress, according to the American Meteor Society, and will be active through about Aug. 12. The Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower will be visible from July 18 through about Aug. 12 as well. Here's what to know about the best times to see shooting stars and places in Mississippi where the night sky will be darkest. When is the best time of night to see Perseid, more meteors in July and early August? All three meteor showers can be visible from evening through dawn, meaning you don't have to stay up super late for this stargazing. You just might not get the best views earlier in the evening. AMS says the best time to see any meteor shower is between midnight and dawn. According to NASA, the Perseids can be seen as early as 10 p.m. It's still summer in Mississippi, so plan ahead if you're spending a lot of time outdoors to watch the sky. Plan for heat and mosquitoes. Nights are cooler but still humid, which can make it hard for sweat to evaporate. Sweating more leads to dehydration faster, so be sure to bring plenty of water and maybe some bug repellent. What is each meteor shower known for? The Perseids are one of the most popular annual astronomical events. They're active for several weeks and can treat viewers to about 50-75 meteors per hour, according to AMS. The moon will likely be bright during the peak evenings in 2025, so only the brightest meteors will be seen. It could reduce visibility by as much as 75%. According to EarthSky, the maximum hourly rate can be about 15-20 visible meteors in a dark sky for the Delta Aquariid. These can be faint and hard to see. The alpha Capricornids have fewer meteors, but they're showier. This shower is known for fireballs, but you might only see about five per hour, according to the Meteor Society. What are the peak nights to see shooting stars in July and August? The American Meteor Society estimates the peak periods will be around July 29-30 for the Delta Aquarids and alpha Capricornids. The Perseids will peak around Aug. 12-13. The new moon was on July 24, making the dark nights before and after the clearest for sky watchers. But other nights, other than around the full moon, will still offer visibility, weather permitting. When is the August full moon? The worst nights for viewing meteor showers will be in the days surrounding the full moon. The full moon in August, called the "Sturgeon Moon," will be on Aug. 9, 2025. Peak illumination will be 2:55 a.m. CT, according to Farmer's Almanac. Moonrise in Jackson will be a 7:48 p.m. CT, on Aug. 8, according to That'll be shortly after sunset around 7:51 p.m. Where are the best dark sky places in Mississippi? Find a great spot to see the night sky Go Astronomy lists some of the best places for seeing the night sky without light pollution in Mississippi. Places that have a Bortle dark-sky scale score are provided. The nine-tier system ranks a three as a rural night sky and a one as an excellent dark sky. Bienville National Forest: Bortle score - 3. Clark Creek Natural Area: Bortle score - 3. De Soto National Forest. Delta National Forest. French Camp. Holly Springs National Forest. Holmes County State Park: Bortle score - 3. Homochitto National Forest: Bortle score - 3. Leroy Percy State Park: Bortle score - 3. Tishomingo State Park: Bortle score - 3. Tombigbee National Forest. The Natchez Trace Parkway has designated stargazing spots from sunrise until 10 p.m.: Big Tree Overlook, milepost 439.4. Little Mountain Exhibit Shelter, milepost 193.1. Reservoir Overlook, milepost 105.6. Are a meteor and a comet the same thing? No. They're different, but they can be related. A comet is an icy ball of rock, frozen gas and dust that orbits the sun. According to NASA, they can be "the size of a small town." As they get near to the sun, comets develop a head that's bigger than some planets made of dust and gas. The resulting tail can be millions of miles long. Meteors, sometimes called shooting stars, are little pieces of debris that we see burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, according to NASA. "Every Perseid meteor is a tiny piece of the comet Swift-Tuttle, which swings by the Sun every 135 years," NASA wrote. Before it enters the atmosphere and is still in space, the rock is called a meteoroid. A meteorite is the part of the meteor that survives the trip and hits the ground. Space Connect reporter Eric Lagatta contributed to this report. Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at bbolden@ This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Summer meteor showers peak soon: When, where to see Perseid, more in MS Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Best-ever map of the human genome sheds light on 'jumping genes,' 'junk DNA' and more
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Twenty-two years after the completion of the Human Genome Project, scientists have unveiled the most expansive catalog of human genetic variation ever compiled. Across two new papers published Wednesday (July 23) in the journal Nature, scientists sequenced the DNA of 1,084 people around the world. They leveraged recent technological advancements to analyze long stretches of genetic material from each person, stitched those fragments together and compared the resulting genomes in fine detail. The results deepen our understanding of "structural variants" within the human genome. Rather than affecting a single "letter" in DNA's code, such variations affect large chunks of the code — they may be deleted from or added to the genome, or encompass places where the DNA has been flipped around or moved to a different location. The studies have revealed "hidden" features of the human genome that were previously too technologically challenging to study, said Jan Korbel, the interim head of European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Heidelberg, who is a co-author of both new papers. For instance, large portions of the genome contain codes that repeat over and over, and these were thought to be nonfunctional. "Some 20 years ago, we thought about this as 'junk DNA' — we gave it a very bad term," Korbel told Live Science. "There's more and more the realization that these sequences are not junk," and the new work sheds light on these long-maligned DNA sequences. Additionally, all of the data generated in the new studies are open access, so others in the field can now take "the findings, some of the tools we've developed and use them for their purposes to understand the genetic basis of disease," Korbel told Live Science. "I thoroughly believe that the advances that we're publishing in Nature today, a subset of these will also make it into diagnostics." Related: People's racial and ethnic identities don't reflect their genetic ancestry Over 1,000 genomes When the first draft of a "complete" human genome was published in 2003, it was actually missing about 15% of its sequence due to technological limitations of the time. In 2013, scientists managed to close that gap by about half. And finally, in 2022, the first "gapless" human genome was published. In 2023, researchers published the first draft of a human pangenome, which incorporated DNA from 47 people around the world, rather than predominantly being based on one person's DNA. And that same year, researchers published the first Y chromosome that had ever been sequenced from end to end, because the previous "gapless" genome was still missing the male sex chromosome. In the past few years, the field has continued to advance, thanks to new technologies and efforts to expand DNA sampling beyond populations of mostly European descent. Those advancements heralded the two papers published in Nature this week. In the first study, researchers sequenced the DNA of 1,019 people representing 26 populations across five continents. To analyze the DNA, the researchers collected "long reads," each composed of tens of thousands of base pairs; one base pair corresponds with one rung in the spiral ladder of a DNA molecule. "With short reads of around 100 base pairs, it is difficult to distinguish between genomic regions that look alike," explained study co-author Jesus Emiliano Sotelo-Fonseca, a doctoral student at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CGR) in Barcelona, Spain. That's especially true in repetitive regions of the genome. "With longer reads, of around 20k base pairs, assigning each read to a unique position in the genome gets much easier," he told Live Science in an email. More than half of the new genomic variation uncovered in the study was found in those tricky repetitive regions, including in transposons, also known as jumping genes. Transposons can leap to different locations in the genome, copying and pasting their code. Sometimes, depending on where they land, they can destabilize the genome, introduce harmful mutations and contribute to diseases like cancer. "Our study reveals that some of these transposons can hijack regulatory sequences to boost their activity, contributing to understanding the biological mechanisms behind their mutagenicity," or ability to trigger mutations, study co-author Bernardo Rodríguez-Martín, an independent fellow at CGR and a former postdoc in Korbel's EMBL lab, told Live Science in an email. The jumping genes can essentially hitch a ride with certain regulatory molecules — long noncoding RNAs — and use that trick to make far more copies of themselves than they usually would. "That's a very surprising mechanism to us," Korbel said. Related: Scientists just discovered a new way cells control their genes From 95% to 99% The second study featured far fewer genomes — only 65 in total — but sequenced those genomes more comprehensively than the first study did. The first study captured about 95% of each genome analyzed, while the second study generated 99%-complete genomes. "It might sound like a small difference, but it's huge actually from the perspective of the genome scientist," Korbel said. "To get the last few percentages, it's a major achievement." That leap required different sequencing techniques, as well as new analytical approaches. "This project used cutting-edge software to assemble genomes and identify genetic variation, much of which simply did not exist a few years ago," co-author Charles Lee, a professor at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, told Live Science in an email. The sequencing techniques included one that generated long reads with very few errors and one that generated ultralong reads that were slightly more error-prone. At the expense of analyzing fewer genomes, this approach nonetheless enabled the second study to capture stretches of DNA that were totally missed in the first, Rodríguez-Martín said. Those "hidden" regions included the centromeres, important structures at the centers of chromosomes that are key for cell division. As a cell prepares to split, fibers attach to the centromeres and then pull the chromosome in two. The study found that, in about 7% of centromeres, there are likely two places where these fibers can attach, instead of only one. "Could that mean that those chromosomes are more unstable? Because if the spindle [fiber] attaches to two points, it might get confused," Korbel said. That's a purely speculative idea, he added, but it's one that can now be explored. The next step will be to study the effects of these centromere variations experimentally, Lee agreed. Issues with chromosome splitting can lead to various conditions. For example, "Down syndrome is the result of a mistake of chromosome segregation during cell division in meiosis," when cells split to form sperm and eggs, co-author Dr. Miriam Konkel, an assistant professor at the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, told Live Science in an email. Like the first study, the second study also provided an unprecedented look at jumping genes, cataloging more than 12,900. Beyond cancer, jumping genes can also trigger various genetic diseases by causing mutations, as well as prompt more subtle changes in how genes are switched on and off, Konkel noted. A better understanding of the diversity of jumping genes can help unpack their function in human health and disease. Looking at both studies, scientists can now compare the newly sequenced genomes to other datasets that include both genome and health data, Korbel noted. This would be the first step toward linking the newfound structural variations to tangible health outcomes and, eventually, to incorporating those insights into medical practice. RELATED STORIES —Largest human family tree ever created retraces the history of our species —More than 150 'made-from-scratch' genes are in the human genome. 2 are totally unique to us. —As little as 1.5% of our genome is 'uniquely human' "Certain clinical studies will not be able to ignore these [sequencing] techniques because they will give them higher sensitivity to identify variation," Korbel said. "You don't want to miss variants." There's still more work to be done to improve the genomic data, as well, Lee added. More DNA could be incorporated from underrepresented populations, and the sequencing techniques and software could be further refined to make the process more efficient and accurate. But in the meantime, the pair of new studies marks a major technological feat. "These advanced tools were developed recently to handle the huge amounts of long-read data we are now using for each genome," Lee said. "A few years back, assembling a complete human chromosome from end to end, especially including centromeres, was virtually unattainable because the software and algorithms were not mature yet." Solve the daily Crossword