ALMA Finds 7-Year Hot Spot on Betelgeuse, Warping Its Atmosphere by 6%
Updated
Updated · Sci.News · Aug 25
ALMA Finds 7-Year Hot Spot on Betelgeuse, Warping Its Atmosphere by 6%
3 articles · Updated · Sci.News · Aug 25
Summary
2023 ALMA observations resolved two hotter regions on Betelgeuse’s photosphere, including a northeastern patch about 800 K warmer than its surroundings.
That brightest hot spot closely matches one seen in 2015, indicating it has persisted for at least seven years rather than flickering briefly.
The images also show a distorted outer layer, with radial corrugations of about plus-or-minus 6% in the star’s apparent radius concentrated in one sector.
Researchers link both features to violent convection—rising gas cells and shocks that help form molecules and dust and may drive the red supergiant’s mass loss.
Betelgeuse, about 724 light-years away and roughly 1,400 times the Sun’s radius, is a prime supernova precursor whose eventual explosion could be visible from Earth in daylight.