So why did it take so long to find?<\/p>\n
Betelgeuse’s unexplained brightness changes, now explained?<\/h2>\n
Betelgeuse is around the 10th brightest star<\/strong> in the night sky, found in the famous constellation of Orion.<\/p>\n It is a red supergiant star, found in the hunter\u2019s shoulder, that can be seen with the naked eye.<\/p>\n Humans on Earth have been watching Betelgeuse for thousands of years. <\/p>\n It is, in fact, the most studied red giant out of all of them, possibly due to the fact that its brightness is constantly changing. <\/p>\n It rises and falls in a cycle that lasts about 6 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n Astronomers have pondered what could be the cause, and no one has yet been able to explain it.<\/p>\n Is there another star involved? <\/p>\n A few years ago, researchers started reinterpreting Betelgeuse’s six-year cycle to see if a companion star could explain it.<\/p>\n The researchers also predicted when this potential partner would be the easiest to spot in the sky.<\/p>\n They found that in December of 2024, it should sit farthest from Betelgeuse, and therefore be able to be seen. <\/p>\n The team of researchers, led by Miguel Montarg\u00e8s, used the European Southern Observatory<\/a>\u2019s Very Large Telescope to try to spot this mysterious star, named Betelgeuse B<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It was no easy feat.<\/p>\n With Betelgeuse and its harsh glare, trying to find the faint light of a potential companion could easily be missed. <\/p>\n Montarg\u00e8s had his doubts, wondering whether their technology would be able to detect it. <\/p>\n On December 6, 2024, the long-awaited observations occurred.<\/p>\n However, the universe likes to hide its secrets<\/a> and did not reveal anything right away.<\/p>\n After the initial imaging, there had to be several months of processing for the researchers.<\/p>\n They made use of glare removal software around Betelgeuse to detect what was not just random noise.<\/p>\n And after months of processing, a faint spot was finally found. <\/strong><\/p>\n Montarg\u00e8s says he actually jumped from his seat when he saw the images, excitement racing. <\/p>\n They had finally identified the spot, 52 milliarcseconds from the famous Betelgeuse, that was another star!<\/p>\n The fact that it exists is not the only revelation. <\/p>\n Based on its brightness, it is thought to be of enormous mass, some 2.6 to 3.1 times<\/strong> that of our Sun. <\/p>\n It is so massive, and so hot, that it is categorised as blue-white, which is far hotter than the orange supergiant that it is found next to. <\/p>\n To validate their findings, the team measured how far the possible partner star is located from Betelgeuse in this new image. <\/p>\n They found it to be about nine times the Earth-Sun distance.<\/p>\n Using this, their calculations gave an orbit of at least about 5.5 to 5.9 years which matches Betelgeuse’s dimming pattern!<\/strong><\/p>\n So, as predicted, the brightness cycle that repeats roughly every six years could very likely be due to this companion in orbit every 5.8 to 5.9 years. <\/p>\n These results are not confirmed yet, and the team calls the star just a candidate in its research paper.<\/p>\n They will look again in about a year, when the potential partner star should be on the opposite side of Betelgeuse.<\/p>\n If this occurs, then little doubt will remain. A new star will have been discovered! Just like this new star, other discoveries like this mysterious lava world<\/a> are changing how we see the universe. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Betelgeuse is one of the brightest shining stars in the universe. For around 100 years, astronomers have wondered if it has a hidden partner. Could there be another star even brighter by its side? A telescope in Chile has just captured the clearest image yet of a potential partner star. It could even be two … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":45266,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_focus_keyword":"Betelgeuse,companion star","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_description":"A telescope in Chile captured the clearest image yet of Betelgeuse\u2019s possible companion, a star about 2.6 to 3.1 times the size of the Sun\u2019s mass.","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45237"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45724,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45237\/revisions\/45724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ecoportal.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Eso2003c-1-300x150.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/h2>\n
Does Betelgeuse have a hidden partner? <\/h2>\n
Discovering what’s been hidden for all these years<\/h2>\n