Speaker
Description
Betelgeuse, a bright star in the shoulder of the Orion constellation has
been known for centuries - even appearing in drawing on the walls of the Lascaux Caves in Southwestern France. And an unexpected amazing phenomenon occurred
last year.
The bright cool supergiant Betelgeuse became historically faint in
February 2020. Various explanations have been offered for its
unusual behavior – including conjectures this foreshadows
an imminent supernova event. Many astronomical resources –
from the ground and space – tracked the star’s unusual behavior.
With photometry, direct imaging, spatially resolved spectroscopy,
polarization measures, infrared, optical and ultraviolet spectra
helped us to unravel what happened to this supergiant star.
These measurements allow this historic event to be
followed from its origin in the stellar surface, through the extended
atmosphere, and into the circumstellar medium. We now think we
understand what occurred and caused the anomalous dimming.
And this informs fundamental characteristics of the evolution of
all stars.
