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Astronomers Solve Mystery of Why Bright Star Betelguese ‘Sneezed’
Hubble and ground telescopes tracked a dense gas wake from Siwarha, explaining Betelgeuse’s 2,100-day dimming cycle and 2019/2020 great dimming event, study shows.
- A team at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian detected a trailing wake from a companion star near Betelgeuse using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground observatories after eight years, presenting results on Jan. 5 accepted by The Astrophysical Journal.
- Two independent teams in 2024 and 2025 found Betelgeuse's dimming repeats every 2,100 days, caused by Siwarha's passage pushing gas aside and creating a trailing wake.
- Mechanics-first: denser, shocked gas accumulates behind Siwarha, creating a ripple that alters Betelgeuse's light, NASA Hubble said: "Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse! This red supergiant star is only 650 light-years away, making it large enough and close enough to be a popular source of study for scientists investigating how giant stars age, lose mass, and eventually explode in a supernova."
- The study says it "resolves one of the biggest mysteries" about the giant star's dimming and opens new avenues to study mass-loss processes in giant stars nearing supernova, the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian team reports.
- Astronomers plan further observations when Siwarha emerges in August 2027, and Betelgeuse's size—more than 400 million Suns—makes these observations significant.
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Astronomers solve mystery of why bright star Betelguese ‘sneezed’
For decades, astronomers have tracked changes in its brightness and surface features in hopes of figuring out why the star behaves the way it does.
·Missoula, United States
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Between late 2019 and early 2020, the supergiant Red Betelgeuse showed signs of weakness suggesting that its inescapable supernova explosion a few hundred light years from the Solar System was perhaps imminent. Other hypotheses have been formulated and recently to...
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Total News Sources26
Leaning Left3Leaning Right2Center6Last UpdatedBias Distribution55% Center
Bias Distribution
- 55% of the sources are Center
55% Center
L 27%
C 55%
R 18%
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