Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion’s shoulder. All of a sudden, isn’t bright anymore!
THE CONTINUING MYSTERY OF BETELGEUSE:
For months, astronomers have been keeping a wary eye on Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion’s shoulder.
What’s attracting their attention? All of a sudden, Betelgeuse isn’t bright anymore. Its visible luminosity has “fallen off a cliff”–a sign that the star could be on the verge of going supernova.
“The most recent measurements put the visual magnitude of Betelgeuse at about +1.66, the dimmest its been in our 25 years of photometry,” says Edward Guinan of Villanova University.
Above: The horizontal axis is Heliospheric Julian Date(HJD). For reference, Jan. 30, 2020, the date of the most recent measurement, has an HJD of 2458879.
To be continued on
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