NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Observations Resolve "One Of The Biggest Mysteries" About Betelgeuse
IFLScience••science
Key Points:
- Recent studies suggest Betelgeuse has a hidden companion star named Siwarha orbiting within its atmosphere, causing periodic dimming every ~2100 days, which was previously unexplained.
- New observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories detected a "wake" or trail of gas created by Siwarha moving through Betelgeuse’s atmosphere, providing direct evidence of the companion.
- This discovery helps explain Betelgeuse's irregular brightness changes, including the significant dimming event in 2019/2020, by showing the gravitational influence of Siwarha on the star's expelled gas and dust.
- Understanding this binary system offers astronomers a unique opportunity to study the evolution, mass loss, and
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