All articles tagged with #betelgeuse
New research suggests that Betelgeuse’s companion star is hidden from Hubble’s ultraviolet view not because it is too faint, but because it is obscured by a dusty wake stirred up as it orbits through the red giant’s extended atmosphere. This explains the discrepancy between ground-based detections and Hubble’s non-detections.
New ALMA observations reveal Betelgeuse’s boiling, irregular surface with an average temperature around 2300 K and a brightest hotspot about 800 K hotter than its surroundings. The hotspot appears in 2015 and 2023 data in nearly the same location, indicating a persistent feature lasting at least seven years and shedding light on deep convection, mass loss, and the star’s atmosphere as Betelgeuse—about 600 light-years away and ~800 solar radii—nears its eventual supernova (not imminent).
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have produced one of the most detailed images of Betelgeuse, revealing a bumpy, irregular atmosphere with bright hotspots likely tied to convective motions; comparison with 2015 data shows a hotspot persisting for at least seven years and variations of up to about 6% in the star’s apparent radius, underscoring Betelgeuse’s non-spherical, extended surface as it heads toward its supernova fate.
Astronomers using ESO's VLT and its SPHERE instrument captured the clearest image yet of Betelgeuse B, the long-suspected stellar companion to Betelgeuse, now estimated to be 2–3 solar masses; this finding helps explain Betelgeuse's brightness changes and could affect its future evolution and supernova, with further observations needed to confirm its orbit.
Using ALMA, scientists captured 2023 images of Betelgeuse, a ~20-solar-mass red supergiant about 600 light-years away, revealing a turbulent, bubbling surface with bright hotspots caused by giant convective flows in its atmosphere; the warmest region in the northeast persists for at least seven years, hinting at long-lived surface structures and possibly a companion star; with atmospheric temperatures around 2,030°C and pockets hotter by about 530°C, these observations help explain mass loss and atmospheric dynamics as Betelgeuse nears its eventual supernova; the study will continue monitoring and is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics (arXiv).
Betelgeuse, the bright red supergiant in Orion, will someday explode as a supernova but likely not for about 100,000 years. New observations strengthen the case that Betelgeuse has a binary companion (Betelgeuse B) hidden in its glare, which could influence its evolution. When it finally collapses, the explosion will unleash an enormous energy burst—mostly in the form of neutrinos—and could heat and strip some mass from the companion, though both stars would largely survive. Earth’s distance would likely keep the event from being catastrophic, but many details about the system and timing remain uncertain.
The common claim that the night sky is full of dead stars is mistaken: the stars visible without a telescope lie within roughly 4,000–10,000 light-years and have lifetimes from millions to trillions of years, so the light we see is a snapshot of their past rather than evidence of their demise. Because the naked-eye sample is nearby and long-lived, only about one visible star is expected to die every ~10,000 years as a rough Milky Way estimate, far slower than stellar lifespans. Exceptions exist (e.g., Earendel at great distance and Betelgeuse, which is not due to explode for ~100,000 years), but for ordinary observers the sky remains largely “alive.”
Using ESO's Very Large Telescope with the SPHERE instrument, astronomers obtained the clearest image yet of Betelgeuse's suspected companion, Betelgeuse B (Siwarha), estimated at 2–3 solar masses. While it remains to confirm whether the companion is gravitationally bound, the discovery reshapes our understanding of Betelgeuse’s environment and could influence models of its future evolution and mass loss as it heads toward a supernova in the distant future.
Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope with the SPHERE instrument released the clearest image yet of Betelgeuse B, a possible companion star, suggesting Betelgeuse is a binary system. Betelgeuse B is estimated to have 2–3 times the Sun’s mass. Follow‑up observations over a full orbit are needed to confirm the companion's path and to assess any influence on Betelgeuse’s future supernova.
A sharp image from ESO's Very Large Telescope reveals a faint companion near Betelgeuse, named Betelgeuse B: a young, hot star about 2.6–3.1 solar masses orbiting the red supergiant at roughly the Saturn–Sun distance. The finding, supported by two independent image-processing methods and strong statistical significance, suggests Betelgeuse is a binary/multiple system; although orbital motion still needs to be observed to confirm binding, the result has important implications for how massive stars form and how their winds and mass loss operate.
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.
Tonight, Orion’s famous belt anchors the winter sky as Betelgeuse glows red and Rigel shines blue-white, with Bellatrix and Saiph also white. The Belt points toward a 58% illuminated waxing gibbous Moon in Taurus, illustrating how surface temperatures color stars and outlining what to look for when stargazing this January night (Jan. 26, 2026).
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories have found direct evidence of a hidden companion star to Betelgeuse, Siwarha, whose orbital wake through the red supergiant’s atmosphere explains Betelgeuse’s six-year brightness cycle and other variability, with the wake matching predictions from an orbiter that completes a six-year orbit and potentially merging with Betelgeuse in the distant future; findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Astronomers have confirmed that Betelgeuse has a hidden companion star, Siwarha, which creates a dense gas wake as it moves through the star's atmosphere, explaining long-standing variability and behavior changes in this red supergiant, with future observations planned for 2027.
Researchers have found strong evidence that Betelgeuse's unusual dimming patterns are caused by a hidden companion star, Siwarha, which creates a detectable wake as it moves through Betelgeuse's outer atmosphere, confirming long-standing hypotheses about its behavior.