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New discoveries from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have helped astronomers solve the mystery of why Orion Betelgeuse’s bright red supergiant faded dramatically for several weeks last year.
Examining the massive red hypergiant VY Canis Majoris, astrophysicists from NASA and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis found that the same processes occur on a much larger scale.
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The sighting was published in the February 4, 2021 edition of The Astronomical Journal, where the authors wrote that imaging and spectroscopy confirm a “record of high mass loss events over the course of a few hundred past years “.
“The similarity of this correspondence in VY [Canis Majoris] with the remarkable recent gradation of Betelgeuse and an outflow of gas is apparent, ”they said. loss of mass for red supergiants. “
In a press release issued Thursday by NASA, University of Minnesota Emeritus Professor Roberta Humphreys explained that Hubble data showed VY Canis Majoris behaving like Betelgeuse “on steroids.”
This artist’s impression of the hypergiant star VY Canis Majoris reveals the large convection cells and giant arcs of the star. Credits: NASA, ESA and R. Humphreys (University of Minnesota), and J. Olmsted (STScI)
In the case of the small star, the researchers say the gradation was due to the release of gas that could have formed dust that was temporarily blocking some of the star’s light.
“I think the great thing to take away from these results is that the massive ejections or star outs observed in the [Hubble] the images and measured in the spectra correlate with periods of great variability and deep minima in its light observed over two centuries, ”Humphreys told Fox News Friday.
“We believe this is due to activity or convection on the surface responsible for massive gaseous ejections,” she continued. “For example, we know the sun has flares and explosions of gas streams that we see as prominences.”
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“In VY Canis Major – 30 [times the] mass of [the] sun and 300,000 brighter – it’s much more extreme, “she says.” These gas outlets can be up to 10 times the mass of Jupiter. “
Plasma arcs surround VY Canis Majoris, appearing to have been driven from him at distances that are thousands of times farther than Earth from the sun and over the past several hundred years.
However, other structures close to the million-year-old star – which look like knots – are relatively compact, and scientists working with Humphrey have been able to date more recent eruptions to the 19th and 20th centuries when VY Canis Majoris was passed to one. sixth of its original brightness.
The press release notes that the hypergiant loses 100 times more mass in Betelgeuse and is now only visible using a telescope.
“This is probably more common in red supergiant than scientists thought and VY Canis Majoris is an extreme example,” she said in the statement. “It may even be the primary mechanism that causes mass loss, which has always been a bit of a mystery to the red supergiants.”
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The future of the start is uncertain, but Humphreys said the star was “clearly unstable”.
“This high mass loss will determine its eventual fate as a supernova or black hole,” she said.
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