'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse star is solved

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse star is solved

Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
@BBCAmoson Twitter

16 June 2021

Astronomers say they've put to bed the mystery of why one of the most familiar stars in the night sky suddenly dimmed just over a year ago.

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation of Orion, abruptly darkened in late 2019, early 2020.

The behaviour led many to speculate that it might be about to explode.

But a team using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile says the cause was almost certainly a giant dust cloud between us and the star.

Even if you can't name many points in the sky, you'll definitely know Betelgeuse by sight. It's the orange dot in the top-left corner of Orion - or bottom-right, if you're viewing the constellation in the Southern Hemisphere.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57501416

[USALiberal]

1. Thanks for this! Nt

[keithbvadu2]

2. The dust cloud was over 500 years ago.

[bahboo]

3. hah! love this kind of shit....