Inside The Sky at Night
In July’s episode of The Sky at Night, astronomer Emily Cannon talks to the team about her work on Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star that’s had something of a fainting spell recently
Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse… Arguably the most famous of the red supergiants, Betelgeuse continues to give us a unique insight into the workings of the largest stars in the Universe.
If one were placed at the centre of our Solar System, it would extend past the orbit of Jupiter, expel vast amounts of chemically rich material, before eventually exploding as a supernova.
On 7 December 2019 an Astronomer’s Telegram (which these days is announced via email and Twitter) claimed that Betelgeuse was dimming. As Betelgeuse is a variable star it is not unusual to see variations in its brightness. However, on this occasion the brightness of Betelgeuse was continuing to fall far below that of what was expected and the dimming became so apparent that it was even noticeable by eye in the night sky.
Within two weeks of the telegram, our team, led by Dr Miguel Montargès, submitted a proposal and was granted time to observe Betelgeuse with the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch) instrument, among others, at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The high angular resolution capabilities of SPHERE allow us to resolve the surface of Betelgeuse, which means that the star no longer looks like a point source and we can distinguish surface features. It was clear from the images we obtained on 27 December 2019 that there was a drop in brightness in the southern part of the star when compared to observations from January 2019.
But what could have caused this dramatic change? Much of the physics of red supergiants is still uncertain, so multiple causes are being explored. Our team is currently investigating two main theories; the fact that part of the surface is at a cooler temperature could be due to the convective activity of the star, or because a clump of dust has been ejected in our direction. This
dust theory would not be too unexpected as Betelgeuse has already been observed to have a clumpy outer wind, just like many other red supergiants. In order to test the viability of the theory that ejected dust is the cause, we are running many thousands of computer simulations that we can then compare to the observations.
Does this dimming mean Betelgeuse is about to go supernova? It is unlikely. The final nuclear reaction sequences that happen within the star have such short timescales that their light would not reach the surface before the explosion occurred, so we don’t expect to see changes in brightness pre-supernova.
As we watch Betelgeuse regain brightness it is important to note that without the help of amateur astronomers in observing and documenting this star each day, much of this science would not be possible and events like this could be missed. Appearing on The Sky at Night is a fantastic opportunity to not only thank observers for their efforts, but also to encourage both the continued monitoring of Betelgeuse and other red supergiants, such as Antares, to help unravel the remaining mysteries of these stars. As we move through summer, I encourage everyone to use the nights to stargaze and to patiently wait for Betelgeuse to re-appear in the morning sky. How will it look?