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Old 30-06-2020, 10:39 AM
gary
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Betelgeuse dimming most likely caused by giant star spots - new study

29th June 2020

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Originally Posted by Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Betelgeuse, the bright star in the constellation of Orion, has been fascinating astronomers in the recent months because of its unusually strong decline in brightness. Scientists have been discussing a number of scenarios trying to explain its behaviour. Now a team led by Thavisha Dharmawardena of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have shown that most likely unusually large star spots on the surface of Betelgeuse have caused the dimming. Their results rule out the previous conjecture that it was dust, recently ejected by Betelgeuse, which obscured the star. The results are published today in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Full press release here, with images :-
https://www.mpia.de/news/science/2020-08-betelgeuse

Paper at arXiv, "Betelgeuse fainter in the sub-millimetre too:
an analysis of JCMT and APEX monitoring during the recent optical minimum" by Dharmawardena et. al :-
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.09409.pdf
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Old 30-06-2020, 12:26 PM
Saturnine (Jeff)
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Interesting article, helps explain the dip in brightness, probably. Thanks for the link.
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Old 30-06-2020, 01:16 PM
foc (Ross)
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Thanks for the info. Wonder if this report of Betelgeuse spots will go viral! Last Summer was a bit of a dud here, hope this year we get lots of smoke free opportunities to enjoy Betelgeuse and Orion.
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Old 30-06-2020, 02:21 PM
glend (Glen)
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I prefer the Dyson Sphere Theory, more exciting, and we will never know for sure either way.
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Old 17-08-2020, 11:36 AM
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billdan (Bill)
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This article from ABC news explains what scientists believe is causing Betelgeuse to dim (dust clouds).


https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-...ained/12563330
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Old 17-08-2020, 12:11 PM
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Max Vondel (Peter)
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Brewing up and out the Carbon of life
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