Astronomers May Have Unlocked the Reason for Betelgeuse's Bizarre Dimming

"Astronomers may have finally solved one of the weirdest mysteries of our night sky: why Betelgeuse, a massive star in the constellation Orion, seems to fade and brighten as if it were operated by a heavenly dimmer switch. Using the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, scientists observed Betelgeuse for almost eight years and found that patterns in the star's light suggested the wake of another, unseen star was passing through its atmosphere."

"It's a bit like a boat moving through water. The companion star creates a ripple effect in Betelgeuse's atmosphere that we can actually see in the data, said Andrea Dupree, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and lead author of a preprint paper about the finding that will be published in the Astrophysical Journal, in a statement."

Astronomers observed Betelgeuse with the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories for nearly eight years. Patterns in the star's light indicate the wake of another, unseen star moving through Betelgeuse's atmosphere. The passing companion produces ripple effects that alter the star's apparent brightness. The companion appears to transit in front of Betelgeuse roughly every six years. Confirmation via follow-up observations would explain periodic major dimming events, including the pronounced 2020 fading that prompted supernova speculation. Betelgeuse remains a massive, nearby red supergiant capable of containing roughly 400 million suns by volume.

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