These images, taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, reveal the surface area of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse throughout its extraordinary dimming, which took place in late 2019 and early 2020. The image on the far left, taken in January 2019, reveals the star at its typical brightness, while the staying images, from December 2019, January 2020, and March 2020, were all taken when the star’s brightness had actually visibly dropped, particularly in its southern area. The brightness went back to typical in April 2020. Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al.
Mystery of Betelgeuse’s Dip in Brightness Solved
When Betelgeuse, an intense orange star in the constellation of Orion, ended up being noticeably darker in late 2019 and early 2020, the astronomy neighborhood was puzzled. A group of astronomers have actually now released brand-new pictures of the star’s surface area, taken utilizing the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), that plainly demonstrate how its brightness altered. The brand-new research study exposes that the star was partly hidden by a cloud of dust, a discovery that fixes the secret of the “Great Dimming” of Betelgeuse.
Betelgeuse’s dip in brightness — a modification visible even to the naked eye — led Miguel Montargès and his group to point ESO’s VLT towards the star in late 2019. An image from December 2019, when compared to an earlier image taken in January of the very same year, revealed that the excellent surface area was considerably darker, particularly in the southern area. But the astronomers weren’t sure why.
The group continued observing the star throughout its Great Dimming, recording 2 other never-before-seen images in January 2020 and March 2020. By April 2020, the star had actually gone back to its typical brightness.
When Betelgeuse, an intense orange star in the constellation of Orion, ended up being noticeably darker in late 2019 and early 2020, the astronomy neighborhood was puzzled. A group of astronomers have actually now released brand-new research study finished with ESO’s Very Large Telescope and Very Large Telescope interferometer that fixes the secret of Betelgeuse’s dimming. This ESOcast Light summaries the discovery. Credit: ESO
“For once, we were seeing the appearance of a star changing in real time on a scale of weeks,” states Montargès, from the Observatoire de Paris, France, and KU Leuven, Belgium. The images now released are the only ones we have that program Betelgeuse’s surface area altering in brightness with time.
In their brand-new research study, released today (June 16, 2021) in Nature, the group exposed that the strange dimming was brought on by a dirty veil shading the star, which in turn was the outcome of a drop in temperature level on Betelgeuse’s excellent surface area.
This animation integrates 4 genuine pictures of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, the very first taken in January 2019 and the others taken in December 2019, January 2020 and March 2020, throughout the star’s extraordinary dimming. All images, which permit us to fix the surface area of the star, were taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Astronomers were puzzled to see Betelgeuse’s brightness reduction, however later on discovered that it was brought on by a “dusty veil” that partly hid the southern part of the star. Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al./L. Calçada
Betelgeuse’s surface area frequently alters as huge bubbles of gas relocation, diminish and swell within the star. The group concludes that a long time prior to the Great Dimming, the star ejected a big gas bubble that moved far from it. When a spot of the surface area cooled off quickly after, that temperature level reduction sufficed for the gas to condense into strong dust.
“We have directly witnessed the formation of so-called stardust,” states Montargès, whose research study offers proof that dust development can happen extremely rapidly and near a star’s surface area. “The dust expelled from cool evolved stars, such as the ejection we’ve just witnessed, could go on to become the building blocks of terrestrial planets and life,” includes Emily Cannon, from KU Leuven, who was likewise associated with the research study.
This image reveals the area of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter). Betelgeuse can be seen rather quickly without the requirement for a telescope as the best shoulder of Orion, as highlighted in this diagram. Credit: ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)
Rather than simply the outcome of a dirty outburst, there was some speculation online that Betelgeuse’s drop in brightness might indicate its impending death in an amazing supernova surge. A supernova hasn’t been observed in our galaxy considering that the 17th century, so contemporary astronomers aren’t totally sure what to anticipate from a star in the lead-up to such an occasion. However, this brand-new research study verifies that Betelgeuse’s Great Dimming was not an early indication that the star was heading towards its significant fate.
This artist’s animation reveals a close-up view of Betelgeuse’s irregular surface area — with its giant, vibrant gas bubbles — and far-off stars dotting the background. As the “virtual camera” turns from right to left we see a dirty clump, which condensed from gas launched by the star, obscuring the southern area of Betelgeuse from various viewpoint. When the red supergiant star Betelgeuse ended up being noticeably darker in late 2019 and early 2020, astronomers were puzzled. Thanks to a brand-new research study performed with ESO telescopes, we now understand that Betelgeuse’s dip in brightness was the outcome of a “dusty veil” that formed from product that emerged from the star, partly hiding its southern area. The brand-new research study reveals that the star most likely ejected a big gas bubble that moved far from it; when a spot of the surface area (in dark in the animation) cooled off quickly after, that temperature level reduction sufficed for the gas to condense into strong dust. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
Witnessing the dimming of such an identifiable star was interesting for expert and amateur astronomers alike, as summarized by Cannon: “Looking up at the stars at night, these tiny, twinkling dots of light seem perpetual. The dimming of Betelgeuse breaks this illusion.”
The group utilized the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research Study (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT to straight image the surface area of Betelgeuse, along with information from the GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), to keep an eye on the star throughout the dimming. The telescopes, situated at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert, were a “vital diagnostic tool in uncovering the cause of this dimming event,” states Cannon. “We were able to observe the star not just as a point but could resolve the details of its surface and monitor it throughout the event,” Montargès includes.
This chart reveals the area of the extremely brilliant red supergiant star Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) in the well-known constellation of Orion (The Hunter). This map reveals the majority of the stars noticeable to the unaided eye under excellent conditions and the star itself is marked with a red circle. Although the star itself is plainly noticeable to the unaided eye, the nebula around it cannot be seen aesthetically with any telescope. Credit: ESO, IAU and Sky & Telescope
Montargès and Cannon are eagerly anticipating what the future of astronomy, in specific what ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), will give their research study of Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star. “With the ability to reach unparalleled spatial resolutions, the ELT will enable us to directly image Betelgeuse in remarkable detail,” states Cannon. “It will also significantly expand the sample of red supergiants for which we can resolve the surface through direct imaging, further helping us to unravel the mysteries behind the winds of these massive stars.”
This video takes the audience from the constellation of Orion to the surface area of the supergiant star Betelgeuse, which went through an extraordinary dimming in late 2019 and early 2020. As we zoom closer to the star, we see the star’s “flames”: clouds of dust caught in a remarkable image taken with the VISIR instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The dot appearing at the end of the zoom is a March 2020 image taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope proving Betelgeuse’s noticeable surface area, which has a size near that of the orbit of Jupiter. Credit: ESO/P. Kervella/M. Montargès et al., Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: E. Pantin, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: J. B. Monell (www.johanmonell.com)
Reference: “A dusty veil shading Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming” by M. Montargès, E. Cannon, E. Lagadec, A. de Koter, P. Kervella, J. Sanchez-Bermudez, C. Paladini, F. Cantalloube, L. Decin, P. Scicluna, K. Kravchenko, A. K. Dupree, S. Ridgway, M. Wittkowski, N. Anugu, R. Norris, G. Rau, G. Perrin, A. Chiavassa, S. Kraus, J. D. Monnier, F. Millour, J.-B. Le Bouquin, X. Haubois, B. Lopez, P. Stee and W. Danchi, 16 June 2021, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03546-8
The group is made up of M. Montargès (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris France [LESIA] and Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, Belgium [KU Leuven]), E. Cannon (KU Leuven), E. Lagadec (Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, Nice, France [OCA]), A. de Koter (Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands and KU Leuven), P. Kervella (LESIA), J. Sanchez-Bermudez (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany [MPIA] and Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico), C. Paladini (European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile [ESO-Chile]), F. Cantalloube (MPIA), L. Decin (KU Leuven and School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, UK), P. Scicluna (ESO-Chile), K. Kravchenko (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany), A. K. Dupree (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.), S. Ridgway (NSF’s NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.), M. Wittkowski (European Southern Observatory, Garching bei Munchen, Germany [ESO-Garching]), N. Anugu (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, U.S.A. and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Exeter, UK [Exeter]), R. Norris (Physics Department, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, U.S.A.), G. Rau (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Exoplanets & Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD, U.S.A. [NASA Goddard] and Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC U.S.A.), G. Perrin (LESIA), A. Chiavassa (OCA), S. Kraus (Exeter), J. D. Monnier (Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, U.S.A. [Michigan]), F. Millour (OCA), J.-B. Le Bouquin (Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, Grenoble, France and Michigan), X. Haubois (ESO-Chile), B. Lopez (OCA), P. Stee (OCA), and W. Danchi (NASA Goddard).
ESO is the primary intergovernmental astronomy company in Europe and the world’s most efficient ground-based huge observatory without a doubt. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, in addition to the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO performs an enthusiastic program concentrated on the style, building and construction and operation of effective ground-based observing centers allowing astronomers to make essential clinical discoveries. ESO likewise plays a leading function in promoting and arranging cooperation in huge research study. ESO runs 3 special first-rate observing websites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO runs the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer along with 2 study telescopes, VISTA operating in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. Also at Paranal ESO will host and run the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s biggest and most delicate gamma-ray observatory. ESO is likewise a significant partner in 2 centers on Chajnantor, PEAK and ALMA, the biggest huge job out there. And on Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, ESO is developing the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will end up being “the world’s biggest eye on the sky.”
