Additional Information! Cool Facts!

Apart from the Orion Constellation, Betelgeuse is also part of two winter asterisms. It forms the Winter Triangle with Canis Minor and Sirius and lies at the center of the Winter Hexagon formed by Sirius, Prpcyon, Pollux, Aldebaran, Rigel, and Capella. These patterns make Betelgeuse really easy to spot on the sky.
Also, the star had been mentioned in many works and films, upon one of the most famous ones is
Beetlejuice by Tim Burton of 1988. The movie is about two people passed on to become ghosts and destined to haunt. How are they related? We can say that the movie and the red supergiant relates only by the pronunciation of their names.

the Winter Triangle and Winter Hexagon is clearly inscribed here

Beetlejuice Movie

Zooming on Betelgeuse

Works Cited
"Betelgeuse." Constellation Guide. NRelate. 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
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Taylor, Drew. "5 Things You Might Not Know About Tim Burton's 'Beetlejuce'" The Playlist. IndieWire, 23 Mar. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
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What is Betelgeuse made of? What does its life cycle look like?

Like most other stars, Betelgeuse is composed of gas and dust particles which cooled over time, giving the star a red-orange color. Similarly, just like the life cycle of any other star, Betelgeuse is found with hydrogen, helium, carbon, oxygen, and heavier element up to iron. Up to now, the red supergiant is 10 million years old compared to the 5 billion years old of our sun. The surrounding of Betelgeuse looks brighter than the regions further out, indicating that the star started shedding its mass in a faster rate at about 30,000 years ago. Betelgeuse's probable future is that it will explode as a supernova and all the heavier elements will emit for future stellar generations.  The ejected outer layer, known as the bow shock, will form an arc curve until it hits surrounding materials. However, the actual explosion time is still unsure. It could happen any day, now or a few hundred thousand years later. By then, the explosion may be big enough that the light emitted will travel to earth to look like a second sun for a few days.

elements in Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse Supernova explosion. the bow shock is an arc-structure force

Scientist believes that Betelgeuse will explode in 100,000 years, but this number is still uncertain 

When the star explodes, it will look like there are 2 suns like this image from Star Wars. 

Works Cited
"Betelgeuse." Herschel Space Observatory. Astronomy&Astrophysics, 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
LINK

"Betegeuse -- The Red Supergiant 100,000 Times Brighter than Our Sun: An Emerging Supernova." The Daily Galaxy.  Great Discoveries Channel, 21 July. 2013. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
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Gardner, David. "Earth 'to Get Second Sun' as Supernova Turns Night into Day."  Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 10 Mar, 2011. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
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"Meet the Workaholic Star, Betelgeuse."  Night Sky Network. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
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How large is Betelgeuse?

Large is not even enough to describe the size of Betelgeuse. After all, the star is not called "supergiant"for nothing! The diameter of Betelgeuse is approximately 850 million miles or 1.4 billion kilometer. Compared to the sun, this is 1000 times our sun's diameter. The mass of Betelgeuse is about 15.3E30 kg or about 10 solar mass. This is about 20 times the mass of the sun with 1.989E30kg mass! Think this is large? Think again, the Canis Majoris star has a 59.67E30 kg mass!

Betelgeuse Diameter

Size compared to the sun. The sun is at the core. 

Mass relative to other planets. In order:

Earth->Sun->Eta Carinea->Betelguese->Canis Majoris

Works Cited
"Facts About Betelgeuse." Betelgeuse Star- Facts About Betelgeuse. Solar System Quick, n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
LINK

"How Much Does Betelgeuse Weigh?" MIT Technology Review. MIT Technology Review, 23 Sept. 2011.Web. 09 Dec. 2014.
LINK

Maddalena, Ronald J. "Betelgeuse." Betelgeuse. Orion Tour Center, 1998. Web.11 Nov. 2014.

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