The Hubble telescope, shared by several space agencies, can reach several remote places in our universe, such as interstellar stars.
About six months ago, the star Betelgeuse recorded its lowest brightness in 25 years. A phenomenon for which scientists could not find an explanation. Then unfortunately the pandemic was registered, for which several international observatories closed their doors. In this way, many of the activities were affected and events occurred that were unfortunately not appreciated. But thanks to the powerful telescope Hubble, the NASA was able to decipher the mystery of the dimming of Betelgeuse.
This star, which is located in the constellation of Orion, was the ninth brightest in our sky. But mysteriously, since the end of 2019, it began to lower its brightness in an unstoppable way. Many astronomers began to speculate about a possible death of the star. Likewise, this theory was rejected when, in April of this year, Betelgeuse returned to the natural brightness that everyone knew.
What did Hubble discover about Betelgeuse?
So what happened to Betelgeuse? they all wondered. The star dimmed for a few months, then returned to its natural state. This made the mystery about the celestial body grow even more. Well it happens that, as he explains NASA on its official website, a traumatic outbreak in nearby regions, surrounded the star with layers of clouds. So it was not that it lost its shine, no, it was that they clouded our view of it.
Andrea Dupree, associate director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), Cambridge, Massachusetts, explains how they noticed this gaseous cloud that surrounded the star, and how they appreciated it from our southern hemisphere. “With Hubble, we see the material when it left the visible surface of the star and moved through the atmosphere. Even before the dust formed that made the star appear to dim,” said the scientist.
“We were able to see the effect of a hot, dense region in the southeastern part of the star moving outward (…) This material was two to four times brighter than the normal brightness of the star,” said Dupree as a complement to the reasons. from the low brightness of the star.
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