The latest round of observations of the star Betelgeuse are in, and the dimming that some were reporting as a precursor to supernova has stopped; now, there's evidence of brightening.
對參宿四恆星的最新一輪觀測正在進行中，一些人報告為超新星的前兆的暗淡現象已經停止；現在，有證據表明超新星正在變亮。
This means the star isn't coming to a premature end, as some have hoped; but everyone is still a little bit baffled about why the star dimmed so deeply in the first place.
這意味著這顆恆星不會像一些人所希望的那樣過早結束；但每個人仍然對為什麼這顆恆星一開始就變得如此暗淡感到有點困惑。
Betelgeuse, ensconced in the Orion constellation about 700 light-years away, is very elderly for a star of its type.
參宿四，居住在大約700光年外的獵戶座，對於這類恆星來說是非常古老的。
It spent its main sequence years - with an active core fusing hydrogen atoms - as a hot, luminous, bluish-white star around 10 to 25 times the mass of the Sun.
它的主要序列年-一個活躍的核心融合了氫原子-就像一顆熾熱、發光的藍白色恆星，大約是太陽質量的10到25倍。
These stars live furiously, and have relatively short lifespans.
這些恆星生活激烈，壽命相對較短。
Betelgeuse is now around 8 to 8.5 million years old, and its main sequence days were done around 1 million years ago (compare that to a star like the Sun that is only halfway through its main sequence years, at 4.6 billion years old).
參宿四現在大約有800萬到850萬歲，它的主序列天數是在大約100萬年前完成的(與像太陽這樣的恆星相比，它的主序列年只有一半，年齡為46億年)。
It cooled, and puffed out into a red supergiant about 40,000 years ago.
大約4萬年前，它冷卻了，並膨脹成一個紅色的超級巨星。
By now, Betelgeuse has run out of hydrogen in its core, and is fusing helium into carbon and oxygen.
到目前為止，參宿四的核心已經用完了氫，並且正在將氦融合成碳和氧。
The core has also contracted, which brings more hydrogen into the region immediately around the core, forming a hydrogen shell; this hydrogen shell fuses into helium, which is dumped into the core to fuel the helium fusion.
核心也收縮了，這將更多的氫帶入核心周圍的區域，形成一個氫殼層；這個氫殼層融合成氦，氦被傾倒到核心中，為氦聚變提供燃料。
Eventually, the star's core will fuse heavier and heavier elements, ultimately resulting in a buildup of iron that will cause the core to collapse - and the old star will go kaboom.
最終，恆星的核心將融合越來越重的元素，最終導致鐵的堆積，導致核心坍塌-而老恆星將會爆炸。
However, astronomers have predicted that Betelgeuse is still around a few tens of thousands of years from that point.
然而，天文學家預測參宿四距此點還有幾萬年的時間。
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