Image of Betelgeuse’s surface taken in December 2019

Eso_eso2109e_1024

eso_eso2109e June 16th, 2021

Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al.

The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, in the constellation of Orion, underwent an unprecedented dimming in late 2019 and early 2020. This stunning image of the star’s surface was taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in December 2019, and is one of the images taken during an observing campaign aimed at understanding why the star became fainter. Betelgeuse’s brightness returned to normal in April 2020. Astronomers now understand that Betelgeuse’s dip in brightness was the result of a dusty veil that emerged from the star, partially concealing its southern region.  An earlier version of this image was released in early 2020.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2109e/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Betelgeuse
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Red Supergiant
Eso_eso2109e_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 55m 10.3s
DEC = 7° 24’ 25.4”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
0.0 x 0.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Orion

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange VLT (SPHERE) Optical (H-alpha) 645.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Eso_eso2109e_1280
×
ID
eso2109e
Subject Category
B.3.1.5  
Subject Name
Betelgeuse
Credits
ESO/M. Montargès et al.
Release Date
2021-06-16T17:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2109e/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope
Instrument
SPHERE
Color Assignment
Orange
Band
Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha
Central Wavelength
645
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
88.7929376683, 7.40706597123
Reference Dimension
798.0, 798.0
Reference Pixel
399.0, 399.0
Scale
-1.02010522546e-07, 1.02010522546e-07
Rotation
-0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
https://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso2109e
Metadata Date
2021-04-23T14:06:52+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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