The star appeared dimmer in 2019. Betelgeuse is still recovering after blowing out.
The red supergiant star is one of the brighter stars in the sky. The constellation is named after the star.
Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its stellar life and will eventually explode in a supernova, but it might take another 100,000 years.
Betelgeuse's light went off in the late 19th century. It lost two thirds of its normal luminosity by February 2020.
A giant dust cloud obscured some of the star's light, but scientists concluded that the star wasn't about to explode.
Betelgeuse may be carrying a dark secret.
Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope found that the dust cloud was caused by an enormous ejection from the star's surface.
"Betelgeuse is doing some very unusual things right now, the interior is sort of bouncing," said the study author.
Dupree said that this is the first time in star science that this has happened.
She said that they had never before seen a mass ejection of a star. We don't know what's going on. It's a new phenomenon that can be observed directly and resolved with Hubble. stellar evolution is happening in real time.
The new research incorporated information from a variety of stellar observatory, such as the STELLA Robotic Observatory in Spain's Canary Islands.
By putting together different types of data, Dupree and her team were able to tell a story.
The eruption blew off a chunk of the star's lower atmosphere, the photoosphere, leaving behind a cool spot that was further obscured by the dust cloud from the blow up.
The first two panels of the Hubble Space Telescope show a bright, hot blob of plasma being ejected from the star's surface. The expelled gas quickly expands in panel three. It forms a huge cloud of dust grains. A quarter of the star's surface is covered in a huge dust cloud.
According to NASA, the chunk of photoosphere was several times the mass of the moon.
The dust cloud explains why Betelgeuse's light went off. Researchers found that the star is still feeling the effects of the wind.
Betelgeuse had a bright pattern on a 400 day cycle. The cycle is no longer going on.
The researchers found that the cells inside the star are disrupting the pattern.
According to NASA's Hubble site, the star's outer atmosphere may be back to normal, but its surface may still be moving.
The eruption isn't proof that Betelgeuse will go supernova, but it shows how old stars lose mass.
If Betelgeuse dies in a stellar explosion, the light will be visible in the daytime, but the star is too far away to have any impact on our planet.
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The original article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
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