Speaking to mid-day, Arvind Paranjpye, director of Nehru planetarium, said, “Every year around February 14, the Betelgeuse star appears right overhead. It rises four minutes earlier every day, and on this Valentine’s Day, it will be overhead at 8:30 pm. So if people look up at the sky in the southern direction at that time, they will be able to view Betelgeuse glowing in a distinct red colour.” 

Paranjpye pointed out that Betelgeuse was also called ‘supergiant’. He added, “It is 700 times bigger than our Sun. If you place it where the Sun is, our Earth would get engulfed by it. The star is also about 500 to 600 light years away from us. Betelgeuse has been in the news since last year when observers noted that the star had ‘visibly’ dimmed. It is believed that it threw off some of its outer material into space, which then blocked the light from the star. Betelgeuse is expected to explode any day in the next 100 years, and when it does, it will be brighter than the Moon as seen from the Earth.”