US EditionBetelgeuse's Elusive Companion Star: Siwarha's 'Wake' Detected
Astronomers observed Siwarha's gas wake disrupting Betelgeuse's atmosphere, explaining its 2,100-day brightness cycle from nearly eight years of data, researchers said.
- At the AAS meeting Monday, a Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian-led study revealed direct evidence of a dense wake trailing Siwarha, disrupting Betelgeuse's atmosphere, with results accepted by The Astrophysical Journal.
- After the 2020 Great Dimming, astronomers renewed efforts, and Dupree said, `'The idea that Betelgeuse had an undetected companion has been gaining in popularity for the past several years, but without direct evidence, it was an unproven theory.'`
- Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground telescopes, the team tracked spectral changes over nearly eight years and found ultraviolet Fe II blueshifted peaks showing the wake's absorption.
- The discovery positions astronomers to study mass shedding and supernova precursors, as researchers say the wake offers a "front-row seat" to watch giant stars change and plan follow-up observations in 2027.
- Every six years, Siwarha's transit reveals the wake, a dense trail appearing just after crossing Betelgeuse, roughly 650 light-years away and large enough to hold more than 400 million Suns.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Betelgeuse's elusive co-star left a trail of clues for astronomers
For more than a century, Betelgeuse has looked like a star with a secret.It swells and fades on a six-year rhythm that never quite made sense. The star, about 650 light-years away in space, is old, bloated, and unstable, but not unstable enough to explain its slow pulse. The answer might be simpler than expected. Betelgeuse, pronounced "Beetlejuice" just like the Tim Burton film, appears to have company, traveling within its own atmosphere.Astro…
Betelgeuse's elusive companion star: Siwarha's 'wake' detected
Using new observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, astronomers have tracked the influence of a recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, on the gas around Betelgeuse. The research, by scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), reveals a trail of dense gas swirling through Betelgeuse's vast, extended atmosphere, shedding light on why the giant star's brightness and atmosphere…
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