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Betelgeuse

From Encyc
Betelgeuse's large size means it is one of very few stars modern telescopes can discern a disk. This image, from 2019, shows how part of the disk has dimmed, but before Astronomers realized the surface was obscured by an enormous mass ejection.

The red supergiant star Betelgeuse is located approximately 650 lightyears from the Solar system, in the constellation Orion.[1]

As a red giant star Betelgeuse has exhausted its available Hydrogen.[2] Stars that exhaust their Hydrogen leave the main sequence. Betelgeuse's mass is great enough that it is expected to first fuse Helium, the fuse Carbon, fuse Silicon, then finally exhaust those elements, until its core is hot and dense enough to fuse Iron. The fusion of Helium, Carbon and Silicon releases energy, but less energy at each stage. The fusion of Iron consumes energy, and when a star's core gets to that density, the beginning of Iron fusion, triggers a catastrophic core collapse, which is the first stage of a supernova.

Changes in Betelgeuse's brightness, in 2021, triggered speculation that it was about to become a supernova.[2] It turned out that the dimming was caused by the ejection of a very large ejection of gas, that partially glocked the star's light.[3]

In January 2026 NASA Astonomers announced they had detected a previously unknown companion to Betelgeuse.[4] That companion's orbit lasts 2100 days, and has been named Siwarha.[5] Siwarha is orbiting within Betelgeuse's chromosphere.[5] Siwarha is a possible explanation for Betelgeuse's 2019 mass ejection. Siwarha may swallow in ten thousand years. This may trigger it supernova.

References

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  1. "We Finally Know Why Betelgeuse Acts So Strange". Space Time Narratives. 2026-07-06. Retrieved 2026-07-15 – via YouTube. It dimmed without warning, may be spinning 25,000x faster than physics allows, and in 2025 scientists found a hidden companion star orbiting in its shadow.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "NASA Hubble Helps Detect 'Wake' of Betelgeuse's Elusive Companion Star - NASA Science". NASA Science. 2026-01-05. Archived from the original on 2026-01-05. Retrieved 2026-07-15. Using new observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, astronomers tracked the influence of a recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, on the gas around Betelgeuse. More than one of |work= and |website= specified (help)
  3. Andrea K Dupree; Klaus G Strassmeier; Thomas Calderwood; Thomas Granzer; Michael Weber; Kateryna Kravchenko; Lynn D Matthews; Miguel Montargès; James Tappin; William T Thompson (2023-01-25). "The Great Dimming of Betelgeuse: A Surface Mass Ejection and Its Consequences". Astrophysical Journal. American Astronomical Society. 936 (1). ISSN 0004-637X. Archived from the original on 2023-03-20. Retrieved 2026-07-15. The bright supergiant, Betelgeuse(Alpha Orionis, HD 39801), underwent a historic optical dimming during 2020 January 27–February 13. Many imaging and spectroscopic observations across the electromagnetic spectrum were obtained prior to, during, and subsequent to this dimming event.
  4. "NASA Hubble Helps Detect 'Wake' of Betelgeuse's Elusive Companion Star". NASA Science. Archived from the original on 2026-07-15. Retrieved 2026-07-15. Using new observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, astronomers tracked the influence of a recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, on the gas around Betelgeuse.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Anton Petrov (2026-01-08). "Betelgeuse Update! Evidence of a Wake Formed by Its Partner". What da Math. Archived from the original on 2026-01-10. Retrieved 2026-07-15 – via YouTube. My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about Betelgeuse's partner also known as Betelbuddy or Siwarha