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Most of the stuff in the night sky will appear indistinguishable from each other to the vast majority of us. However, most of us will also be able to consistently point out the <keyword id="23153097" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Orion-constellation" source="keywords">Orion constellation</keyword> after someone brings it to our notice, primarily because of how recognisable the cluster is. Despite <keyword id="20227335" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="orion" source="keywords">Orion</keyword>’s apparent stardom and popularity, scientists may have gotten something terribly wrong about the character of one of its brightest constituents, it turns out.<br /><br /><keyword id="23153096" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Betelgeuse" source="keywords">Betelgeuse</keyword>, the left “shoulder” of Orion, has always been a star of intrigue. Look at it long enough (and we mean generations-long), and you’ll notice its strange pattern: dimming and brightening over a roughly 400-day cycle. Astronomers chalk this up to the star’s swelling and shrinking, a standard practice among stellar beings driven by the turbulent bubbling of gas near its core. This was all fine and well until something else came into view — a much slower heartbeat pulsing every 2,170 days, leaving scientists scratching their heads.<br /><br />This "long secondary period" (LSP), as the experts call it, doesn’t quite fit with the usual behaviour of Betelgeuse. Was it dusty clouds? Strange magnetic fields? None of the usual suspects seemed to fully explain what was going on. That’s where things get interesting.<br /><h3 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:14pt;margin-bottom:4pt;">Enter "<keyword id="23153098" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Betelbuddy" source="keywords">Betelbuddy</keyword>"</h3>Co-author Meridith Joyce and her team have proposed an out-of-this-world theory: Betelgeuse may have a partner, affectionately dubbed "Betelbuddy." This sun-sized <keyword id="23153100" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="companion-star" source="keywords">companion star</keyword> could be responsible for Betelgeuse’s mysterious LSP. According to the team’s calculations, Betelbuddy occasionally passes through the thick clouds of dust surrounding Betelgeuse. When it does, it clears the dust away, making Betelgeuse appear brighter from Earth.<br />      <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113313546" title="NASA astronaut Sunita Williams to address Earth from orbiting international Space Station" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>What’s especially tantalising about this theory is that, while Betelbuddy could be a typical companion star, there’s also the wild possibility that it might be something much denser — perhaps a collapsed <keyword id="19910169" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="neutron-star" source="keywords">neutron star</keyword>. But if Betelbuddy were indeed a neutron star, we’d expect to see X-ray emissions, which haven’t been observed yet. So, the jury’s still out.<br /><h3 style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:14pt;margin-bottom:4pt;">A <keyword id="23153099" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="stellar-mystery" source="keywords">stellar mystery</keyword> waiting to be solved</h3>While the notion of Betelgeuse being part of a <keyword id="21270287" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="binary-star-system" source="keywords">binary star system</keyword> is still a hypothesis, it’s not entirely far-fetched. Many stars are known to have companions, and Betelgeuse might just be one more addition to this interstellar family.<br />      <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="113248021" title="Meet SpaceX&amp;#39;s Polaris Dawn crew: The daring 4 who are in space on the most ambitious private space mission in history" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Verifying the existence of Betelbuddy won’t be easy. The technology to detect such a companion is still being refined, but astronomers are gearing up for some key observations later this year. Perhaps we’ll soon know if this iconic <keyword id="23153101" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="red-supergiant" source="keywords">red supergiant</keyword> is truly sharing the stage.<br /><br />The study has been published in a pre-print journal and can be accessed <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.09089">here</a>.<br />

The Orion constellation star Betelgeuse might actually be two separate stellar bodies, a shocking new study has suggested

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The red super-giant star <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/betelgeuse">Betelgeuse</a> has dramatically dimmed, leading to speculation of an imminent <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/supernovas">supernova</a>. But that may not happen for 1 million years.</li><li>A more common but less widely known way for stars to die is a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/red-nova">red nova</a>: When a bigger star rips a smaller one to shreds and gobbles it up.</li><li>Astronomer Larry Molnar and his colleagues have worked to define the stages that lead to a red nova and identified seven candidates in a near-final stage.</li><li>Ongoing surveys of the night sky may soon turn up a candidate that's in a final 10-year phase of becoming a red nova.</li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p>Supernovas, the cataclysmic explosions of giant stars, are one of nature's most awesome spectacles.</p><p>That's why many people are excited that Betelgeuse, a bright red super giant star in the constellation Orion, has suddenly and dramatically dimmed. This rapid fading could mean the star is about to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/where-atoms-came-from-periodic-table-2017-1">blast its guts into deep space</a>, turn half as bright as a full moon, and shine for months (<a href="http://www.astronomy.com/news/2019/12/betelgueses-bizarre-dimming-has-astronomers-scratching-their-heads" target="_blank" rel="noopener">even during the day</a>).</p><p>Or maybe not.</p><p>Astronomers think Betelgeuse's dimming is most likely just another short phase in the life of a giant star that's burning through the last dregs of its fuel.</p><p>"If we look at the past brightness of Betelgeuse, it has gone up and down," <a href="https://calvin.edu/directory/people/larry-molnar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Larry Molnar</a>, an astronomer at Calvin University, told Business Insider. "It could still be a million years before it explodes."</p><p>But if seeing a star explode before you die is on your to-do list, don't lose hope yet.</p><p>For years, Molnar and his colleagues have studied little-known yet extremely bright stellar mergers called "red novas," so named for the dominant color of light they produce. Such events occur when two roughly sun-size stars get locked in a deadly orbital dance. At some point they violently merge, blast millions of trillions of tons of superheated plasma into space, and briefly outshine themselves thousands of times over.</p><p>Molnar and his colleagues have identified seven candidate double-star systems in a "penultimate" stage of becoming red novas. What's more, the group is proposing a new way to locate and predict more in the future.</p><p>If they're correct, astronomers and night-sky watchers alike will have a chance of knowing about a catastrophe (or two) years ahead of time, then watching it from a comfortable number of light-years away within the decade.</p><h2>Red novas: A bright alternative to a supernova</h2><p>Catching a supernova would be a rare and amazing sight: <a href="https://www.space.com/6638-supernova.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">such explosions</a> can shine more brightly than an entire galaxy.</p><p>But out of the hundreds of billions of stars in our <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-number-galaxies-space-universe-2016-10">Milky Way galaxy</a>, which stretches about 100,000 light-years wide, only one explodes roughly every 50 years, <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/26aug_localbubble/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to NASA</a>. What's more, there's no guarantee the next one will be as close as Betelgeuse - about 643 light-years from Earth - and easy to spot with the naked eye.</p><p>That's why red novas are a next-best spectacle to try and witness, as violent and visible stellar deaths go. Based on previous occurrences, they are visible to Earth once every 10 years.</p><p>The latest known red nova was V1307 Scorpii, a double-star system that unexpectedly merged and <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1012.0163" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detonated in 2008</a>. Another possible red nova was V838 Monocerotis (shown at the top of this story); the star system suddenly flashed in 2002, temporarily becoming <a href="https://hubble25th.org/images/12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">600,000 times brighter</a> than the sun and the brightest object in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-milky-way-galaxy-looks-like-2016-9">Milky Way galaxy</a>.</p><p>Though astronomers aren't totally certain V838 Monocerotis is a red nova, the Hubble telescope has kept its eye on the expanding gas and dust of the object. Researchers in 2006 morphed eight of those Hubble photos to show off the red nova's evolution in an animation that compresses four years into six seconds.</p><p>Molnar thought he'd found two stars <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/red-nova-stellar-merger-prediction-sky-2017-1/commerce-on-business-insider">about to explode as a red nova in 2017</a> - the system KIC 9832227 - which he predicted would happen around 2022. But that <a href="http://www.calvin.edu/academic/phys/observatory/MergingStar/2018Update.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prediction was canceled</a> after another scientist discovered a subtle yet critical error in 1990s data that Molnar had relied on.</p><p>"We now have strong reason to believe these guys shouldn't be merging anytime soon," he said.</p><p>That hasn't dissuaded Molnar from looking for more, though.</p><h2>How a red nova works</h2><p>Red novas can be seen about once a decade because one in roughly every 500 sun-like stars is part of a system called a contact binary: two stars that orbit so close together, they share superheated gases. If you could visit such a system, it'd look like a giant glowing peanut or bowling pin (shown above).</p><p>But this closer relationship is also a dance of death.</p><p>No one is sure of the stages that lead to a red nova, which is what motivated Molnar and his colleagues to formulate them - then test those ideas by finding stars that may fit the bill.</p><p>Molnar thinks two stars, one larger than the other, rotate at a speed that matches the other's orbit, much like the Earth and its moon (which is why we only see one face). This is called tidal locking.</p><p>But the bigger star ages more rapidly over billions of years than its smaller companion because its stronger gravity fuses hydrogen fuel into helium at a faster rate. Once the star's core runs low on hydrogen, Molnar says things decidedly take a turn for the worse, <a href="https://aas233-aas.ipostersessions.com/default.aspx?s=00-6E-20-36-28-6C-1F-17-A9-8F-BE-F4-69-3C-6C-04" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to his recent predictive work</a>.</p><p>The larger star begins fusing its helium into carbon and oxygen, causing it to <a href="http://hosting.astro.cornell.edu/academics/courses/astro201/evol_sun.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">start expanding outward</a>. To counteract this imbalance, the smaller star begins drifting away and losing material to the bigger star.</p><p>"There's this stage that's very long and slow, where gradually the little guy loses material to the big guy," Molnar said.</p><p>But this transfer can't last forever, Molnar said. After the smaller star shrinks to about 10-15% of the bigger star's mass, it begins to fall back toward the bigger star and spin faster. This "penultimate" stage that lasts perhaps 1,000-10,000 years.</p><p>"The final stage is when they've moved in enough, their common atmosphere is so big, that they begin to lose material out the back end," Molnar said. "It looks like a garden hose spinning around your head."</p><p>Losing its gas to space causes the smaller star to spin even faster than before. After about 10 years, Molnar thinks, this runaway scenario ends catastrophically: The smaller star shreds to pieces, falls deep into the larger star, and triggers a massive explosion.</p><p>"By falling deep into a star, you release a tremendous amount of energy," Molnar said. "It pushes out the outer parts of the star into a giant expanding explosion, which we see as a red nova."</p><p>Depending on the size of the two stars, among other factors, the merger can liberate as much energy as the sun may generate during its entire multi-billion-year-lifespan over a very short period of time.</p><h2>Seven new red nova candidates</h2><p>After predicting the stages leading up to red novas, Molnar and his colleagues tapped vast surveys of stars in the night sky to find candidates for them.</p><p>In a 25-year-long star survey <a href="http://ogle.astrouw.edu.pl/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called OGLE</a>, the team found 184,000 contact binary systems. After running the data through a supercomputer, seven of these systems emerged as candidates in the near-final 1,000- to 10,000-year-long stage.</p><p>Molnar plans to present the candidates and the work that led to them next week at the <a href="https://aas.org/meetings/aas235" target="_blank" rel="noopener">235th meeting</a> of the American Astronomical Society in Hawaii.</p><p>"These seven guys? I don't expect any of them to explode in the next decade. But I expect all of them to merge within the next 1,000 years or 10,000 years," Molnar said. "It's pretty darn short compared to Betelgeuse or anything else we know, but it's still too long to wait up for. You'd like to have it happen within your lifetime."</p><p>Molnar and his team are working toward finding a candidate in that final, roughly 10-year long stage. One issue is that OGLE only looks at stars within a narrow slice - toward the Milky Way's dense core.</p><p>So the team now trying to use data from several other long-term surveys of the night sky, such as those seeking near-Earth objects that may pose a threat to Earth, to find more contact binaries and red nova candidates.</p><p>Statistically, if they can find about 100 or more "penultimate" candidates, they may find one system that's going to merge and explode within 10 years.</p><p>"There must be one in one of these surveys," Molnar said. "We must look proactively, and promptly. The last one that showed up in 2008? It was sitting in the survey data and nobody was studying it."</p>

Betelgeuse likely won't die as a supernova in your life. But astronomers are finding 'red nova' stars that may soon violently explode.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Every once in awhile, the stars actually do align - then merge, catastrophically explode, and spray their guts all over space.</p><p>Or at least that's the suspected trigger of rare "red novas," so-named for their characteristic red color.</p><p>One of the best-studied red novas happened in 2008. The object, called V1309 Scorpii, was a double-star system (also called a binary) <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1012.0163v2">measured for over 6 years before</a> it merged and erupted.</p><p>But astronomers are desperate to find more such binary systems before they detonate, since watching the cosmic collisions would not only reveal a lot about the evolution of stars and nebulas, but also how space gets <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1994ApJ...425..797L">seeded with elements</a> necessary for life.</p><p>Part of that effort has been <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1609.06595">a thorough search</a> for binary star systems that look ready to blow.</p><p>However, <a href="http://www.calvin.edu/academic/phys/faculty/molnar/">Larry Molnar</a>, an astronomer at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has gone a big step further with a few colleagues: Over the past 2 years, he's claimed not only to have found such a system, but also predicted when it will blow up as a red nova.</p><p>"No one has ever seen a star go into this kind of explosion. No other situation has come up where any astronomer has ever been able to say, 'this is a star about to blow up,'" Molnar said in a preview for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yYZGOk-oaw">an upcoming documentary</a>, called "Luminous."</p><p>His prognostication is specific enough to make any astrophysicist squirm: Molnar now says the whole thing will <a href="https://calvin.edu/news/archive/astronomy-prof-student-predict-explosion-that-will-change-the-night-sky">go down just 5 years from now</a>.</p><p>In fact, according to Molnar's prediction, the stellar outburst should be visible in the night sky without any help from binoculars or a telescope.</p><p>"[T]he lack of viable alternatives we must take seriously the unlikely hypothesis at hand," Molnar told Business Insider in an email.</p><h2>A dance of death</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>The stars in question are a system called KIC 9832227, and they're locked in a dance of death.</p><p>In fact, they're so close together that they share each other's million-degree-plasma atmospheres: an object called a "contact" binary.</p><p>If you could magically teleport to the system, which is located about 1,700 light years from us amid the constellation Cygnus, it might appear as a brilliantly glowing bowling pin.</p><p>But no one was certain that KIC 9832227 was actually a double-star system; all astronomers knew was that its brightness varied over the years. Many types of <a href="http://www.atnf.csiro.au/outreach/education/senior/astrophysics/variable_pulsating.html">stars and star systems "pulsate"</a> their brightness in this way, so Molnar and a Calvin University student had to first rule out any doubt that it was two stars.</p><p>What they found in 2015 is that it behaved much like V1309 Scorpii - one of the best-known binary systems to unpredictably merge - and that the stars' mutual orbits were closing in.</p><p>"Over the past ten years, the period of KIC 9832227 has been getting shorter at a faster and faster rate," Molnar and his team wrote in <a href="https://www.calvin.edu/academic/science/summer/2015posters_papers/Alexanderposter.pdf">a research poster</a> about their discovery. "This implies that the stars are orbiting faster and getting closer together."</p><p>The team has recently ruled out more "mundane" explanations for what they see, according to <a href="https://calvin.edu/news/archive/astronomy-prof-student-predict-explosion-that-will-change-the-night-sky">a January 7 press release</a> by Calvin&#xa0;College.</p><h2>Predicting a violent stellar outburst</h2><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div><p>By using data from the few known examples, especially V1309 Scorpii, Molnar has calculated the approximate moment that the two stars of KIC 9832227 will collide: in the year 2022, "give or take a year," according to the release.</p><p>Molnar said the explosion should increase the brightness of the star system 1,000-fold, to about magnitude 2 - roughly as bright as Polaris, the North Star.</p><p>If and when the two stars collide, they aftermath might look something like <a href="http://hubble25th.org/images/12">V838 Monocerotis</a>, a star which suddenly flashed in 2002, temporarily becoming <a href="http://hubble25th.org/images/12">600,000 times brighter</a> than the sun - and the brightest star in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.my/what-milky-way-galaxy-looks-like-2016-9/#E13vrdo3Ok3PVp42.97">Milky Way galaxy</a>.</p><p>Astronomers aren't certain V838 Monocerotis is actually a red nova, but ever since 2002, the Hubble Space Telescope has kept its wandering eye on the expanding gas and dust of the object.</p><p>Researchers in 2006 morphed eight of those Hubble photos to show off the red nova's evolution. This animation shows 4 years compressed into 6 seconds:</p><p>Should Molnar's prediction of the merger of KIC 9832227 prove correct, then astronomers will get one of the greatest heads-ups ever to a relatively rare and important event in the evolution of stars.</p><p>And being many times closer than a star like V838 Monocerotis, which is located some 20,000 light-years away, KIC 9832227 may also afford among the closest views of a stellar mega-eruption.</p><p>"If the star can completely merge, it can release as much energy as the sun would release in its entire lifetime," he said in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yYZGOk-oaw">teaser video</a> for "Luminous", adding that there's only "a one-in-a-million chance" to catch an event like this.</p><p>"Given the percentages of how many systems we have looked at and how unusual this event is," Molnar told Business Insider, "it seems unlikely that we should have found the next red nova so 'easily.'"</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:57%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exactly-where-you-can-see-this-years-solar-eclipse-2017-1">NASA just released the most accurate map of where Americans can witness a spectacular total solar eclipse this year</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="h0cW9yODE6OICbGVRHrdbZyRVgc-UpAj" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Astronomers think a rare and explosive 'red nova' will light up the night sky in a few years

<ul><li>2022 saw multiple indie game releases, including action and RPG titles.</li><li>Till now, there have been several announcements for a variety of indie titles that are currently under development.</li><li>Below is the list of top <keyword id="16290667" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="upcoming-indie-games" source="Orion">upcoming indie games</keyword> in 2023.</li></ul>Many exciting upcoming indie games are heading our way in 2023 and beyond. There have been several announcements for a variety of indie titles that are currently under development. These indie games belong to various genres, from action to tactical turn-based RPGs.<br /><br />For those who don’t know about indie games, here is some help. An indie game is created by an independent team of developers, typically with limited resources. Indie games tackle the different subject matter and are usually based on innovative game mechanics. Usually, they have shorter playtimes, focusing on quality over quantity.<br /><br />Last year saw the release of a plethora of memorable indie titles that caught the attention of gamers, and this year we are expecting the same. <br /><br />Business Insider India has gathered some of the most exciting upcoming indie games in the pipeline in 2023. These indie games are spread across a variety of genres and platforms.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Hades II" comment="subhead" text="Hades II"><span data-til="noop">Hades II</span></cmsannotation><br />Release date: Mid-2023<br />Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5<br /><br />Haded II is a sequel to Hades' roguelike video game developed and published by Supergiant Games. During the 2022 Game Awards, Supergiant revealed Hades II, and the sequel is expected to tell a new story with new characters, including new weapons and abilities. <br /><br />We don’t have any information about when Hades II will be coming out, but Supergiant Games promised it would enter early access sometime in 2023.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Inkulinati" comment="subhead" text="Inkulinati"><span data-til="noop">Inkulinati</span></cmsannotation><br />Release date: Jan 31, 2023<br />Platforms: PC, Switch, <keyword id="6536570" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="xbox" source="Orion">Xbox</keyword> One, Xbox Series X/S <br /><br />The game is about making the distinct and bizarre creatures, and figures that decorated medieval manuscripts come alive. Inkulinati is set to release in early access by developer Yaza Games. <br /><br />In the game, users have to draw beasts with a magical substance known as ‘living ink.’ The creatures will have their abilities and fight each other using a tactical approach. The game puts a unique spin on strategy along with an eye-catching art style.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Bomb Rush Cyberfunk" comment="subhead" text="Bomb Rush Cyberfunk"><span data-til="noop">Bomb Rush Cyberfunk</span></cmsannotation><br />Release date: Late 2023<br />Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch<br /><br />The Bomb Rush Cyberfunk upcoming title is developed by Team Reptile. The game features a world from the mind of Dion Koster, where self-styled crews are loaded with personal boot packs. In the game, the user has to start their own cipher and dance, trick, pain, and face off with cops. In the game, you can choose a character from your crew and explore the three-dimensional streets freely. Also, the game includes a unique trick system with sliding, grinding, wall-running, and tricking in the ground and air.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Hollow Knight: Silksong" comment="subhead" text="Hollow Knight: Silksong"><span data-til="noop">Hollow Knight: Silksong</span></cmsannotation><br />Release date: June 2023<br />Platforms: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S <br /><br />In the game, you play as a hornet, a princess-protector of Hallownest. The user must battle foes and solve mysteries as she ascends on a deadly pilgrimage to the kingdom’s peak. Also, within the game, discover a new kingdom, explore coral forests, and a new suite of deadly moves. Also, users can craft powerful tools and expand their arsenal of weapons while exploring new heights.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Nine Sols" comment="subhead" text="Nine Sols"><span data-til="noop">Nine Sols</span></cmsannotation><br />Release date: Q2 2023<br />Platforms: PC, Nintendo, PS<br /><br />Nine Sols is a 2D action game featuring Sekiro-inspired defection-focused combat. The user has to defeat the 9 Sols in the deserted city. Developers of Nine Sols, Red Candle Games took inspiration from ‘Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice’ to create the fantasy world.<br /><br />According to the developer, the game is currently under development and will complete between February and April 2023.<br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The Last Faith" comment="subhead" text="The Last Faith"><span data-til="noop">The Last Faith</span></cmsannotation><br />Release date: To be announced<br />Platforms: (PC/Mac/Linux), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One<br /><br />The Last Faith is developed by Kumi Souls Games, which features gothic pixel art. The game thrives on merciless and precise combat, with a huge range of custom weapons. In the game, users can discover a range of melee weapons, spells, and long-range firearms, allowing them to crave a path their own way.<br /><br />SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/new-patent-suggests-that-apple-could-bring-a-foldable-iphone-with-a-self-healing-display-in-the-future/articleshow/97302738.cms">New patent suggests that Apple could bring a foldable iPhone with a self-healing display in the future</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/apples-mixed-reality-headset-could-feature-full-body-facetime-avatars/articleshow/97300580.cms">Apple's Mixed Reality headset could feature advanced hand tracking and may work as a second display for Mac</a><br />

Best upcoming indie games in 2023 you need to watch out for

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/betelgeuse-bright-star-in-orion-getting-dimmer-photos-2020-2">Betelgeuse</a>, a distant red giant star, captured the world's attention last year because it was dimming.</li><li>The star's dying light indicated that it might soon <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/betelgeuse-supernova-red-nova-contact-binary-star-system-explosion-2020-1">explode in a supernova</a>.</li><li>But a new study reveals that's not the case - it was just veiled in a cloud of <keyword id="6381313" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dust">dust</keyword>.</li></ul><p>Scientists have solved one of the most sensational cosmic mysteries in recent memory - and they can chalk the whole thing up to dust.</p><p>The red super-giant star <keyword id="2144476" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Betelgeuse">Betelgeuse</keyword> enraptured the world early last year after scientists noticed that it was dimming. That was taken as a potential sign that the star was beginning to die, collapsing and losing energy - a process that would eventually end in a giant <keyword id="517558" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="supernova">supernova</keyword> explosion. Betelgeuse, then, could have been the first supernova observed in our galaxy since the 17th century. The effect likely would have been visible to the naked eye, shining bright in the sky for months.</p><p>But it turns out the star isn't blowing up after all. According to a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03546-8">study</a> published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, it just appeared to be dimming because a veil of dust was shrouding the star.</p><p>"For once, we were seeing the appearance of a star changing in real time on a scale of weeks," astrophysicist Miguel Montargès, the lead author of the new study, said in a <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2109/">press release</a>. "We have directly witnessed the formation of so-called stardust."</p><div type="image" title="Betelgeuse dust plumes" height="1536" width="2048" msid="83607453" hostid="261"></div><p>To figure out what was happening to Betelgeuse, Montargès and his team of researchers monitored the star's dimming with telescopes on Earth, which allowed them to see the details on its surface. They kept at it through April 2020, as the star returned to its original brightness.</p><p>In the end, they concluded that the star had simply belched out a large bubble of gas. Shortly afterwards, a patch of its surface cooled down enough to condense some of that gas into dust. The cloud of dust lingered for months, blocking Betelgeuse's light and making it look darker and darker from Earth's vantage point.</p><p>Even though Betelgeuse isn't going supernova, its dimming still offered an important display of a critical cosmic process.</p><p>"The dust expelled from cool evolved <keyword id="6370911" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Stars">stars</keyword>, such as the ejection we've just witnessed, could go on to become the building blocks of terrestrial planets and life," Emily Cannon, a co-author of the study, said in the release.</p>

Mystery solved: Betelgeuse, the dimming star that drew international attention, isn't exploding - it was just dusty

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Betelgeuse is a well-known and easily visible star in the Orion constellation.</li><li>It's been fading in brightness, and astronomers aren't sure why.</li><li>The star could be about to explode, or its surface could be shedding, creating space dust.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>One of the brightest and most recognizable stars in the night sky, Betelgeuse, is less than half as bright as it was five months ago.</p><p>Scientists have a few hypotheses about why this is, the most dramatic of which is that since Betelgeuse is a red supergiant, it will eventually explode in a supernova. The fading could indicate that the star is entering a pre-supernova phase: dimming and collapsing before it explodes.</p><p>But most astronomers don't think the star is headed for an explosion just yet.</p><p>That's because the star has experienced cycles of dimming and brightening before (though not this dramatically). It's a pulsating, variable red supergiant - which means its size and brightness can vary due to changes in activity of the convection cells on its surface and the heat in its atmosphere.</p><p>A third possible explanation for the dimming is that Betelgeuse could be shedding some of its own material back into space, creating dust clouds that obscure our view of the star. Astronomers are still exploring where that dust might originate.</p><p>"The phrase 'we are all made of stardust' is one we hear a lot in popular astronomy, but where exactly does this dust come from?" Emily Cannon, a PhD student who works with the European Southern Observatory, said in a statement.</p><p>Astronomers aren't yet sure which of these explanations is right. And to make matters more complicated, Betelgeuse's rate of dimming has slowed in the last week.</p><p>Here's what the fading star looks like.</p>

Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars we see, has been fading for months. It could signal a fiery explosion, but it may just be dust.

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Thirty years ago, an exploding star 168,000 light years away appeared as a small pinpoint of light in the night sky.<p>The supernova, known as SN 1987A, occurred in a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud.</p><p>It was the result of the core of a massive star collapsing under its own gravity, resulting in a stellar explosion that could be seen from Earth.</p><p>Since the supernova was first spotted in the sky, astronomers have used different telescopes and different frequencies to piece together the star's recent past. But they were only able to look as far back as the final 20,000-years&#xa0;of&#xa0;the star's long, long life. Considering the star had thrived for millions of years, that's less than a tenth of its life.</p><p>Now, astronomers at the University of Sydney have found a way to peer further back into the star's history than ever before, millions of years before its violent blowout. And it's a huge step in advancing our understanding of these spectacular cosmic explosions.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>The <a href="http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/06/26/mnras.stw1489">findings</a> were published on Monday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Oxford University Press.<p>The researchers, led by Joseph Callingham, a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney and the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), used a telescope array in the Australian desert where there was no FM radio interference.</p><p>Using the telescope, they were able to listen to faint hisses emanating from the supernova remnant. This allowed them to investigate the supernova at lower radio frequencies than ever before to help "<a href="http://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news.html">fine-tune our understanding of stellar explosions</a>," a University of Sydney press release writes.</p><p>Usually, scientists can't tell what's happening at these low radio frequencies because signals from our own earthbound FM radio drown out the faint signals from space. But, according to Bryan Gaensler, a professor at the University of Toronto who supervised the research, by studying the strength of the radio signal, astronomers can finally figure out things such as the density of the surrounding gas.</p><p>This will allow them to understand the environment of the star before its explosive death.</p><p>"Just like excavating and studying ancient ruins that teach us about the life of a past civilization, my colleagues and I have used <a href="http://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news.html">low-frequency radio observations</a> as a window into the star's life," Callingham said in the press release.</p><p>While previous studies focused on material spit out into space when the star was in its final phase, called its blue supergiant phase, the researchers were able to look further back to when the star was in its long-lasting red supergiant phase.</p><p><div><p><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/l46Cf9Puhrq6W52Gk">via GIPHY</a></p></div></p><p>It's rare for a massive star to enter a blue supergiant phase before it collapses. Most stars are in a red supergiant phase of their life when they explode into supernovae. It's important for scientists to study this phase because most stars spend their final stages of life as a red supergiant.</p><p><span>The researchers found that younger material from the blue supergiant, as well as the shock of the supernova explosion, pushed out older material from the red supergiant.</span></p><p><div><p><a href="http://giphy.com/gifs/l0MYEwfFVwXlwb0pG">via GIPHY</a></p></div></p><p>They also learned that the red supergiant lost its matter at a slower rate, and generated slower winds that pushed into its surrounding environment, than scientists had previously guessed.</p><p>These new insights improve our knowledge of the composition of the space where SN 1987A spent its life. This will allow scientists to tweak their models and simulations to better reconstruct the physics of supernova explosions, Callingham said.</p><p>"Supernova remnant 1987A, more than any other supernova remnant, has shaped our understanding of how massive stars end their lives," Callingham said. "The study has revealed what occurred right before the star's death, helping us to understand the physical processes that led to one of the largest explosions in our universe."</p><p>You can watch the star's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHRUQzrQkZQ&amp;feature=youtu.be">secret history and violent explosion</a> in this video put together by CAASTRO.</p><p><div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/supernova-explosion-when-two-stars-collide-2016-4">This is what a supernova looks like</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RoMGZzMjE64--5sXcacg0iibE2058Kax" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Scientists are peering millions of years back in time to get an inside look at one of the most violent processes in the universe

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>A large-scale 3D <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/extrasolar-planet-nasa-discoveries-data-animated-map-2019-7">map</a> of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/milky-way-is-much-more-massive-than-previously-thought-2019-3">Milky Way</a> shows its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-scientists-discovery-milky-way-2019-2">warped</a> shape with a new level of detail and accuracy.</li><li>Researchers measured the distances between our sun and 2,400 stars to map their three-dimensional coordinates across the Milky Way.</li><li>Scientists still don't know how our galaxy and others like it ended up with these warped S-curve shapes.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>We sit along an outer arm of a massive, spiraling disk of gas, dust, and a billion stars. In the right place at the right time, you can see it as a spilled-milk streak across the night sky: the Milky Way.</p><p>Recently, researchers at the <a href="http://www.astrouw.edu.pl/index.php/english-front">University of Warsaw</a> in Poland measured the distances between thousands of stars and our sun to chart the stars' three-dimensional coordinates across the Milky Way. The result is an unprecedented large-scale 3D map of the galaxy. And that map shows that the edges of the Milky way bend slightly, giving it a warped S shape.</p><p>"Our map shows the Milky Way disk is not flat. It is warped and twisted far away from the Galactic center," <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aau3181">study</a> co-author Przemek Mroz said in a video. "This is the first time we can use individual objects to trace its shape in three dimensions."</p><p>Over the last 50 years, scientists have determined that the Milky Way is not flat like they once thought, but curves at the edges. The first 3D map of the galaxy that showed this warped curve was published in <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-02/sip-tmw013119.php">February</a> by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.</p><p>The Warsaw team used the same technique as the Beijing scientists for their new map, but factored in data from over 1,000 more stars, some as remote as the boundary of the Milky Way's disk.</p><p>The new map provides a larger-scale picture of our galaxy in more detail.</p><h2>Mapping distant stars reveals a bend in the galaxy</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>The researchers used a telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile to image the entire visible Milky Way over 100 times to make their map.</p><p>"The internal structure and history of the Milky Way are still far from being well understood, in part because it is extremely difficult to measure distances to stars in the outer regions of our galaxy," Dorota Skowron, the study's lead author, said in the video.</p><p>To make these difficult measurements, Skowron's team looked for "cepheid" stars. </p><p>"Cepheids are young, pulsating, supergiant stars," she said.</p><p>Cepheids are easy to study because they pulsate at regular intervals and burn hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of times brighter than our sun. Researchers can measure the distance of a cepheid star with an accuracy of more than 95% by using the star's pulsation patterns to determine its luminosity. They can then calculate distance by comparing that luminosity with how bright the star looks from Earth.</p><p>The pulsation patterns also allow scientists to estimate the stars' ages. </p><p>So Skowron and her team measured the distances between our sun and 2,400 of these cepheid stars.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>The locations of these cepheid stars illustrate the way the Milk Way's disk curves away from its center in more detail and with more precision than ever before. </p><p>Other galaxies show similar warping, but scientists still haven't figured out why. The Beijing researchers thought forces from the Milky Way's spinning, massive inner disk of stars may have caused the warping, but Mroz suggested other influences that could be at play.</p><p>"Warping may have been caused by the past interactions with satellite galaxies, interactions with intergalactic gas, or dark matter," he said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><h2>Simulations and maps could unearth galactic history</h2><p>In their observations, the Warsaw researchers also noticed that clusters of similar-aged cepheids follow the shape of the galaxy's spiral. Younger stars appear to be clustered closer to the middle, and older stars are spread out across the edges.</p><p>The researchers guessed that the clustered cepheids may have formed together, so they created a simulation of three waves of star formation to test that theory. The results of the simulation look remarkably similar to the real map.</p><p>The image below compares that simulation (left) with the researchers' actual map of the cepheids (right). The oldest stars, shown in red, are 400 million years old, while the youngest, in blue, are 30 million years old. The little sun symbol marks the location of our own solar system.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>More research like this to map the ages and locations of stars in the Milky Way could can help scientists piece together how our galaxy formed.</p>

A new 3D map of the Milky Way reveals our galaxy's warped shape in unprecedented detail

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>New animations released by NASA are recasting a groundbreaking astronomical moment in a whole new light.</p><p>On February 24, 1987, astronomers Oscar Dhalde and Ian Shelton witnessed an incredible sight atop a Chilean mountain: a new star in the night sky. Soon, however, they realized it was not a star's birth; rather, it was a blue supergiant meeting its doom.</p><p>In that moment, the fusion-powered core of the star - previously called Sanduleak −69° 202 - began to falter. Most astronomers agree the blast happened because the star's&#xa0;core ran low on high-energy fuel, while some believe another star merged with the blue supergiant to trigger the blast.</p><p>Either way, the star collapsed under its own gravity, exploded, and spewed radioactive guts all over space - with the power of 100 million suns. We now call the object <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-peering-millions-of-years-into-supernovas-past-2016-8">Supernova 1987A</a>, or SN 1987A.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>It was not only the brightest supernova seen for hundreds of years, but was also the first time astronomers recorded such an event with modern, high-tech instruments.<p>"Supernova 1987A became one of the best opportunities ever for astronomers to study the phases before, during, and after the death of a star," a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITvAdZzNFb0">video</a> produced by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory team said.</p><p>The data has provided lots clues about supernovas, including how they <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/where-atoms-came-from-periodic-table-2017-1">forge the new elements</a> that life needs to evolve and distribute them around&#xa0;the universe.</p><p>NASA recently commemorated the supernova's anniversary with <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/the-dawn-of-a-new-era-for-supernova-1987a">a bunch of new multimedia</a>, and a few of the images and animations caught our eye.</p><h2>Zooming in on a supernova's leftovers</h2><p>This animation gives you a sense of where in the night sky&#xa0;(and just how far away) SN 1987A is located.</p><p>The remnants lurk inside the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that trails the Milky Way some 168,000 light-years from Earth.</p><p>This vast distance means the explosion technically happened 168,000 years in the past, at least relative to where we live. It took that long for the light from the blast to reach us.</p><h2>Ring of radioactive fire</h2><p>About once a month over the course of more than 20 years, the Hubble space telescope has photographed SN 1987A and its traveling shock wave. Astronomers continue to compile these images into animations to watch the system evolve.</p><p>Starting around the year 2000, they watched the shockwave slam into a 1-light-year-wide ring of gas and dust that the star threw off before its death, creating&#xa0;a brilliant glow.</p><p>Researchers now believe the high-speed blast wave is leaving the field of gas and dust, marking the beginning of a major change in its evolution, according to <a href="http://lanl.arxiv.org/abs/1608.02160">a pre-print study</a> posted to arXiv.org.</p><h2>3D model of a disaster</h2><p>This new animation is a computer simulation that used decades of observations to map SN 1987A's explosion in three dimensions.</p><p>The model, described in <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1508.02275#">a pre-print study</a> also posted to arXiv, can also fast-forward SN 1987A's evolution&#xa0;into the future.</p><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:56%"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:91%"></div></div><div><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:73%"></div></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/molten-salt-reactor-technology-power-world-millions-years-2016-12">This Cold War-era technology could safely power the world for millions of years</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="hoOXhiODE6mtYAnzOSgYhFwj_jwPpGtb" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

NASA released incredible new animations of a star that exploded with the energy of 100 million suns

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0908c/">NASA/ESA</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Hubble Space Telescope orbiting Earth in 2009.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>A vital part inside the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/hubble-telescope" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hubble Space Telescope</a>, which records stunning images of the universe, failed on Friday.</strong></li><li><strong>The part is called a gyroscope and helps Hubble point at celestial objects.</strong></li><li><strong>It's the third of six total gyros to fail since 2009, when astronauts last serviced Hubble. Another gyro is acting "drunk," one official said.</strong></li><li><strong>NASA may start using a single gyro to extend the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/telescopes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">telescope</a>'s lifespan, but this would limit the observations Hubble can make.</strong></li><li><strong>When Hubble dies, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/nasa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a> will have a few ways to get rid of - or rescue - the bus-sized cylinder.</strong></li></ul><p>The Hubble Space Telescope is famous for the stunning images it records of the universe, from <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-galaxy-count-2017-11">distant</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-ultra-deep-field-galaxy-count-2017-11">galaxies</a> to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/neptunes-big-storm-is-disappearing-hubble-telescope-images-show-2018-2">dark storms</a> on Neptune and even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/europa-water-jet-hubble-telescope-photos-2016-9">plumes of water</a> shooting from alien moons.</p><p>But the Earth-orbiting spacecraft won't last forever. NASA, the European Space Agency, and other Hubble partners got a sobering reminder of this fact last week, when a vital part called a gyroscope failed.</p><p>Hubble's gyros help tell the telescope that it's aimed at the right spot in space. Friday's failure marked the third failure of six total gyros that astronauts installed in 2009. So Hubble is left with three such devices - the exact number NASA needs to keep it operating in standard fashion.</p><p>Following the failure, the 12-ton, school-bus-size observatory went into safe mode, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/hubble-in-safe-mode-as-gyro-issues-are-diagnosed" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA said</a> on Monday. But it's not the end.</p><p>"Hubble's instruments still are fully operational and are expected to produce excellent <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> for years to come," NASA said.</p><p>However, the space agency is not yet out of the woods: One of Hubble's three remaining gyros is on the fritz and not functioning reliably.</p><p>"We've had some issues with this gyro in the past, and we've got some possible leads on the current problem," <a href="https://www.stsci.edu/who-we-are/leadership/kenneth-sembach" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ken Sembach</a>, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates Hubble, told Business Insider. "But the thing that's been clear on Hubble is that these gyros all have a mind of their own. I don't think anybody really knows what's going on with it right now."</p><p>NASA plans to continue investigating the issue while the telescope is in safe mode, ideally until a fix is found.</p><h2>How Hubble's gyroscopes work and why they're so important</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-space-telescope-pointing-control-system">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">A diagram that shows instruments Hubble uses to orient itself in space.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Hubble orbits Earth at 17,000 mph and rotates constantly to fixate on a particular object or new region of space. </p><p>The spacecraft has no rocket thrusters to orient itself. Instead, internal motors called reaction wheels spin up to provide momentum. The rest of Hubble responds by "pushing" in the opposite direction, causing it to rotate.</p><p>If Hubble doesn't know exactly where it's pointing, it'd miss targets and send back blurry pictures.</p><p>That's where the gyros come in. Hubble's gyros - ideally, three working at a time - act as an ultra-accurate balancing system that helps the telescope move in the most precise way possible.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/offices/nesc/home/Feature_NESC_Hubble_Space_Telescope_Attitude_Observer_Anomaly_Feb_2014.html">NASA</a></span></p><p class="caption">A Hubble Space Telescope gyroscope.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Each Hubble gyro is a small cylinder with an internal "float" that spins thousands of times per minute. A special fluid helps the float spin effortlessly for more than five years without fail. Two small wires - each finer than a human hair - measure any change in the spin and turn that into an electrical signal.</p><p>The signal feeds into computers, which tell the telescope's reaction wheels how and when to move.</p><p>"You need the gyros to know where you are in space. Once you know where you are, you can tell the spacecraft to turn this way or that way," a Hubble telescope team member told Business Insider. (He asked to remain anonymous because he is not permitted to speak to press about the program.)</p><p>Instruments called fine guidance sensors, which look for fixed patterns of stars in the sky, also help keep Hubble aware of its position. And the telescope has magnetic sensors that provide some orientation data as well. But none of these devices are as great as the gyros, which are among the most accurate and stable ever made, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-space-telescope-pointing-control-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to NASA</a>.</p><p>Hubble's first set of six gyros failed somewhat rapidly - bromine in the liquid ate away at the sensing wires - so NASA astronauts installed six new-and-improved gyros in 2009, dramatically extending Hubble's life.</p><p>Still, Sembach said even these newer devices are finicky, fragile, and will eventually fail.</p><p>"Everything inside has to be working just right in order for these things to work," he said.</p><h2>How a 'drunk' gyro might cut into Hubble's future observations</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2014-27">NASA/ESA/IPAC/Caltech/STScI/Arizona State University</a></span></p><p class="caption">Nine years' worth of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope revealed about 10,000 galaxies in one of the deepest, darkest patches of night sky in the universe.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Since NASA retired its space shuttles in 2011, it has not had a spacecraft able to service Hubble and replace the gyros.</p><p>So Hubble's three gyros are what's left to work with for the foreseeable future.</p><p>"So far, they seem to be doing well, minus this one that's acting drunk," Sembach said, referring to the third and oddly behaving gyro.</p><p>If Hubble's engineers can't figure out what's wrong with the "drunk" gyro and fix it with new software, they'll shut it down. </p><p>"If the outcome indicates that the gyro is not usable, Hubble will resume science operations in an already defined 'reduced-gyro' mode that uses only one gyro," NASA said. In that case, the agency would also turn off one of the remaining two "good" gyros to prevent wear-and-tear and extend the telescope's lifespan.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_784.html">NASA/ESA/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)</a></span></p><p class="caption">The V838 Monocerotis red supergiant star, as seen by the Hubble telescope.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>That change would amount to a roughly 50% cut in the area of sky Hubble could observe at a given moment. So the telescope would have to wait longer to study certain objects. It'd also be unable to move quickly enough to target surprise objects, such as exploding stars.</p><p>"Another potential downside is that observations that require tracking of moving targets (think objects closer than Jupiter) may be difficult to observe since these are normally done under gyro-only control," Sembach said in an email to Business Insider. (A newly discovered comet or a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/oumuamua-comet-asteroid-object-origin-dwarf-stars-2018-9">rogue interstellar asteroid</a> might be two examples.)</p><p>Running on one gyro instead of three could add up to a 10% hit to the observatory's efficiency, Sembach said, but he added: "overall the science will be very similar (i.e., great!)."</p><p>"While reduced-gyro mode offers less sky coverage at any particular time, there is relatively limited impact on the overall scientific capabilities," NASA said.</p><p>On the plus side, saving one gyro for later might help Hubble operate well into the era of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/proxima-b-habitable-atmosphere-jwst-2016-9">James Webb Space Telescope</a>, or JWST, which is NASA's next-generation, infrared-light-sensing observatory. It's scheduled for launch in 2021.</p><p>"Hubble is the world's premier astronomical facility, and it will be until JWST is launched," Sembach said. "Even then, it will have capabilities that'd complement JWST."</p><h2>What will happen to Hubble after it stops working?</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Google Earth; Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Point Nemo, also known as the "spacecraft cemetery" or "spacecraft graveyard."</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Eventually, the telescope may stop working altogether.</p><p>"This weekend's events remind us the spacecraft is aging, and that it will eventually have an end-state," Sembach said. "NASA and the scientific community will have to address this at some point."</p><p>Without some kind of intervention, Hubble is expected to crash to Earth in the mid-2030s. Although it's unlikely Hubble would hit anything after falling from space, NASA and its partners have committed to make sure Hubble doesn't pose any threat.</p><p>To that end, astronauts who serviced the telescope in 2009 screwed on a grappling fixture. This allows for a spacecraft to dock with Hubble, giving NASA a variety of options to deal with its observatory.</p><p>"You could grab it and de-orbit in the Pacific Ocean, because you don't want it hitting an inhabited area," Sembach said.</p><p>If that's the case, NASA would likely target the most remote region of the Pacific, a zone sometimes called <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacecraft-cemetery-point-nemo-google-maps-2017-10">"Point Nemo" or the "spacecraft cemetery."</a></p><p>Another option is for an uncrewed spacecraft to boost Hubble to a very high and stable orbit above Earth, where it would likely remain for thousands of years.</p><p>"Or you could potentially go back and service the thing," Sembach said. "Right now that's not possible, but maybe in 10 years. Who knows?"</p><p>There is a fourth (more radical) option: A large, next-generation commercial vehicle, such as a modified <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-mars-spaceship-big-falcon-rocket-diagram-2018-9">spaceship</a> of SpaceX's upcoming <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-big-falcon-spaceship-construction-musk-mars-missions-2018-9">Big Falcon Rocket system</a>, could capture Hubble and bring it back to Earth for display in a museum.</p><p>"I would not be opposed to that," Sembach said.</p>      <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-completes-james-webb-space-telescope-2016-11">NASA just completed its $8.7 billion space telescope that will replace the Hubble</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

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