Science
Science NASA confirms supergiant Betelgeuse isn’t alone, revealing its companion star, in a new breakthrough discovery.
Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in our night sky, but for over 100 years, scientists have suspected it might have a tiny companion star hiding nearby. The problem? Betelgeuse shines so intensely that spotting anything faint next to it has been nearly impossible.
Now, two new studies have brought fresh excitement to that old theory. By examining more than a century’s worth of observations, astronomers predicted when and where a smaller companion, if it exists, might be detected.
Here’s the catch: They only had a few months ‘ window to catch the little star at its furthest (and most visible) point from Betelgeuse. Miss that, and it’ll vanish back into the glare for another three years.
A new observation has now confirmed this hypothesis. Using the ultra-precise Gemini North telescope in Hawai’i and the ‘Alopeke speckle instrument’, a team of astrophysicists led by a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, took thousands of lightning-fast snapshots to fight through Earth’s blurry atmosphere.
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Then, with some seriously clever image processing, they stitched together a clean picture, showing Betelgeuse and a very faint star right beside it. Exactly where they’d predicted it would be, orbiting very close to the outer edge of Betelgeuse.
After finally confirming the tiny companion star orbiting Betelgeuse, Howell and the team gave it a name with roots as rich as the sky itself: ‘Siwarha’, which means “her bracelet” in Arabic. It beautifully complements Betelgeuse, which itself refers to “the hand of al-Jawza’,” a mystical female figure from old Arabian tales.
So, the two stars now have names that feel like parts of a celestial legend, one on the hand, the other on the bracelet.
Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at Ames, said, “I hope our discovery excites other astrophysicists about the robust power of ground-based telescopes and speckle imagers – a key to opening new observational windows. This can help unlock the great mysteries in our universe.”
To start, this discovery of a close companion to Betelgeuse may explain why other similar red supergiant stars undergo periodic changes in their brightness on the scale of many years.
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Journal Reference:
- Steve B. Howell, David R. Ciardi, Catherine A. Clark, Douglas A. Hope, Colin Littlefield, and Elise Furlan. The Probable Direct-imaging Detection of the Stellar Companion to Betelgeuse. The Astrophysical Journal Letters. DOI 10.3847/2041-8213/adeaaf