The Controversy Surrounding Betelgeuse's Supernova Timing

Betelgeuse, a massive dying star, is not likely to go supernova in the next few decades or even centuries, despite recent buzz on social media. While a team of researchers posited that the star is in the late stage of core carbon burning, scientists unaffiliated with the research say that the team’s model doesn't explain the star’s situation. Betelgeuse is quite young, about 10 million years old, but will burn out much more quickly than the Sun. Everyone agrees that more definitive measurements of Betelgeuse’s distance would be useful for determining the star’s true brightness and, thus, where it is in its life cycle.