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The planetary systems of stars other than the Sun, such as Betelgeuse, are a staple element in much science fiction. ==The star Betelgeuse== (詳細はOrion frequently featured in works of science fiction. A red supergiant, Betelgeuse is one of the largest and most luminous stars known. If it were at the center of our Solar System its surface would extend past the asteroid belt, possibly to the orbit of Jupiter or even beyond, wholly engulfing Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Classified as an M-type main sequence star, and located around 640 light-years from Earth, Betelgeuse shares with the much closer but smaller star Altair (and with R Doradus) the distinction that its image has been resolved by astronomers (see graphic〔 The yellowish red "image" or "photo" of Betelgeuse usually seen is actually not a picture of the red giant but rather a mathematically generated image based on the photograph. The photograph was actually of much lower resolution: The entire Betelgeuse image fit entirely within a 10x10 pixel area on the Hubble Space Telescope's Faint Object Camera. The actual images were oversampled by a factor of 5 with bicubic spline interpolation, then deconvolved (see Plate L2).〕). In another false-color image obtained by infrared interferometry two large, bright star spots spanning ~10 milliarcseconds are visible on the surface of Betelgeuse, possibly representing enormous convective cells rising from below the supergiant's surface. Because of these, Betelgeuse appears to change shape periodically, with a complex, asymmetric envelope that is the product of a colossal ongoing loss of mass, as huge plumes of gas are continuously expelled from its surface (see "Tony and the Beetles" by Philip K. Dick, below). There is some evidence for the existence of close stellar companions of Betelgeuse, orbiting it ''within'' its gaseous envelope (see ''From a Changeling Star'' by Jeffrey Carver and the television series ''Space Battleship Yamato'', below). Astronomers believe that this tremendous star is only 10 million years old, but has evolved rapidly because of its great mass. Currently in a late stage of stellar evolution, it is expected to erupt in a Type II supernova, possibly within the next million years (see ''From a Changeling Star'' by Jeffrey Carver, "Transit of Betelgeuse" by Robert R. Chase and ''Calculating God'' by Robert J. Sawyer, below). Betelgeuse is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and second brightest star in the constellation of Orion, outshining its neighbour Rigel (Beta Orionis) only rarely. Distinctly reddish-tinted, it is a semiregular variable star whose apparent magnitude oscillates between 0.2 and 1.2, the widest range of any first magnitude star. It marks the upper right vertex of the Winter Triangle and center of the Winter Hexagon.〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=The Internet Encyclopedia of Science )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】work=The Internet Encyclopedia of Science )〕 There is considerable controversy about the Arabic language origin of the name Betelgeuse, with some dozens of possible derivations and spellings proposed and used across history. A theory that is gaining wide acceptance is that of Paul Kunitzsch, Professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Munich, who has proposed that the full name of the "ruddy star" Betelgeuse is a corruption of the Arabic (يد الجوزاء ''yad al-jauzā ) meaning ''the hand of the al-jauzā'', where al-jauzā is ''the Central One'', or Orion. Since, prior to the scientific revolution, the study of astronomy was intimately connected with mythology and astrology, the ruddy star—like the red planet Mars—was for millennia closely associated with the archetypes of iron and war, and by extension the motifs of death and rebirth.〔 In South African mythology, Betelgeuse was a deadly lion stalking three zebras represented by the stars in Orion's belt in the age-old drama of predation and nourishment. Betelgeuse has also appeared variously in the folklore of cultures including ancient Persia, India, China, and Japan. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Betelgeuse in fiction」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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