Researchers are interested in Betelgeuse as the star is nearing the end of its life. Relatively soon it will explode in a supernova visible from Earth.
At the end of 2019, Betelgeuse began to darken. By February 2020, it had lost two-thirds of its normal brightness as seen from Earth. Examining the strange dimming, astronomers concluded that the star would not go supernova any time soon, but a giant dust cloud obscured it.
The dust cloud itself was the result of a massive ejection from Betelgeuse’s surface. “We’ve never seen a massive ejection of mass onto the surface of a star before. We’re left with something we don’t fully understand. This is a completely new phenomenon that we can directly observe with Hubble and see surface details. Scientists are observing the evolution of stars in real time,” he said.
The extraction process can be seen below:
The blast isn’t proof that Betelgeuse will go supernova any time soon, but it does show how old stars are losing mass, the researchers said.
Source: Ferra
