Betelgeuse's sudden dimming uncovered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

Researchers who have been observing Betelgeuse were left confused when massive star began dimming mysteriously. A recent observation by NASA's Hubble Telescope w indicates that Betelgeuse's sudden dimming was a result of a huge amount of hot substance that massive star released into . This ultimately created a dust cloud that blocked starlight coming from Betelgeuse's surface.

Hubble observations were led by Andrea Dupree, associate director of Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“With Hubble, we see material as it left star’s visible surface and moved out through atmosphere, before dust formed that caused star to appear to dim. We could see effect of a dense, hot region in souast part of star moving outward," Dupree said.

"This material was two to four times more lumius than star's rmal brightness," she continued. "And n, about a month later, south part of Betelgeuse dimmed conspicuously as star grew fainter. We think it is possible that a dark cloud resulted from outflow that Hubble detected. Only Hubble gives us this evidence that led up to dimming."

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When did dimming occur?

dimming happened when researchers were trying to observe red star using a telescope, which gave m opportunity to examine as to why it started to lose its light. Betelgeuse is a gigantic star which is about 11 times bigger than sun and has a huge volume as well. It expands on a 420-Earth-day cycle.

However, its current bloated situation is a sign that star is approaching its end, which is said to take shape of an intense superva explosion. red star started to lose its brightness at a rapid pace during fall of 2019 where it h lost close to two-thirds of its light by month of February. sudden change in its appearance led many to believe that star will soon meet its demise.

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And while that seemed imminent at time, it did t happen. giant red star was able to make it through dimming affair and regain its original light by May 2020. whole episode certainly raised questions and speculations around main reason behind dimming cause. At time, certain experts said that it could be due to doldrums to a dust cloud that blocks lighting, and while ors attributed it to massive starspots on surface of star.

new study supports dust hyposis which was held by former group of experts, although it claims that red star released cloud itself. Scientists studied Betelgeuse this year and in 2019 with help of NASA's Hubble Telescope. observations that were carried out through late 2019 indicated that re have been massive amounts of material seen moving from surface of red star to its external atmosphere at colossal speeds. neless, re will be a time when  Betelgeuse finally collapses under its own weight, resulting in a superva, although time may t be near.

" one kws what a star does right before it goes superva, because it's never been observed," Dupree explained. "Astromers have sampled stars maybe a year ahe of m going superva, but t within days or weeks before it happened. But chance of star going superva anytime soon is pretty small."

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Im credits: NASA, ESA, and E. Wheatley (STScI)