Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Siwarha's Wake Gives it Away at Betelgeuse

This artist’s concept shows the red supergiant star Betelgeuse and its orbiting companion star. The companion orbits clockwise from this point of view. As it moves through the dense atmosphere, it generates a dense wake of gas that expands outward. The companion’s distance from Betelgeuse is to scale relative to the diameter of Betelgeuse. Artwork: NASA, ESA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI); Science: Andrea Dupree (CfA)

Betelgeuse is the star that everybody can't wait to see blow up, preferably sooner than later. That's because it's a red supergiant on the verge of becoming a supernova and there hasn't been one explode this close in recorded human history. It's been changing its brightness and showing strange surface behavior, which is why astronomers track its activity closely. Are these changes due to its aging process? Do they mean it's about to blow up? Probably not.



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