Image of Betelgeuse’s surface taken in January 2019

Eso_eso2109f_1024

eso_eso2109f June 16th, 2021

Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al.

When the red supergiant star Betelgeuse became visibly darker in late 2019 and early 2020, astronomers were puzzled. This image of the star was taken before Betelgeuse started to fade, using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. When compared with later images, taken in December 2019, January 2020 and March 2020, it is clear that the southern region of the star dimmed significantly, before beginning to its normal brightness. Astronomers now know that this unprecedented dimming was the result of a cloud of dust that emerged from the star. An earlier version of this image was released in early 2020.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2109f/

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_eso2109f_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_eso2109f_1280
×
ID
eso2109f
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/eso2109f/
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
eso2109f
Metadata Date
2021-04-23T14:07:14+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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