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One of the biggest and brightest stars in the night sky has left astronomers puzzled after it has faded dramatically over the last year. Some have speculated that this is a sign of an impending supernova explosion, but new observations are pointing toward two new theories.
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star located around 700 light years away from Earth that can be found glowing orange in the well-known constellation of Orion. It is so massive that if it were placed in the center of our solar system, its surface would extend all the way to Jupiter.
Over the past several months, Betelgeuse has dimmed significantly causing a bit of a stir in the astronomical community. Stargazers stepping outside to look for Betelgeuse will find a star that is just 36% as bright as it was just a year ago, according to the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
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While death by supernova is certainly a possibility for the short-term fate of Betelgeuse, it seems unlikely. "Like all red supergiants, Betelgeuse will one day go supernova, but astronomers don't think this is happening now," the ESO said.
A team of scientists led by Miguel Montargès, an astronomer at KU Leuven in Belgium, has been observing Betelgeuse since December using the Very Large Telescope in Cerro Paranal, Chile, one of the few facilities on Earth capable of taking detailed images of the surface of Betelgeuse.
Through these detailed observations, they have formulated two new possibilities to describe Betelgeuse's dimming: Either a large cloud of dust was ejected toward the Earth, obscuring our view of the star; or there is a large area of cooling on the star's surface due to ‘exceptional stellar activity.'