Study: One of the brightest stars in the sky changed its color

For majority of us, Sun is somewhat of a standard. The largest body in the Solar System is a star that's many times massive than all the planets put together. But there are stars in the Universe many times more massive than our Sun.

Betelguese is one of them, the giant star is 14 times larger than the Sun. It is just 700 lightyears away from Earth. Now scientists have found that the red, giant star changed color.

Betelguese is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The researchers scoured ancient records and found a mention of the star in 2000-year-old Chinese text.

In 100 BCE, an astrologer in the court of Han dynasty mentioned Betelguese in his records. But he refers the star as being yellow in color.

Betelguese is towards the end of his life. During its hayday, it was fusing hydrogen into helium. But now, with hydrogen depleting, it has become red and fusing helium into carbon and oxygen.

The study of change in colour is not for general amusement but it gives scientists a better estimate of its remaining life.

At the end of its life, Betelguese will explode in a supernova. Based on the study, researchers think that the supernova is 1.5 million years away.