Betelgeuse's Hidden Companion Seen in Sharp New Image

Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope’s SPHERE instrument in Chile captured the strongest direct evidence yet that Betelgeuse has a faint stellar companion, Betelgeuse B, making Betelgeuse a binary system. The image suggests Betelgeuse B is about two to three times the Sun’s mass—more massive (and brighter) than earlier predictions—though researchers will need to observe Betelgeuse B again in about a year to confirm it's gravitationally bound and to understand how its presence could influence Betelgeuse A’s future evolution.