Scientists Discover Why Dazzling Star Changes Brightness

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Astronomers say they have confirmed why Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's most dazzling stars, regularly changes brightness.

For the first time, they have discovered a much smaller companion star that is orbiting the red supergiant.

Experts say its passage across Betelgeuse's face causes a 400 day cycle of dimming, as well as another one that lasts for nearly six years.

Betelgeuse is more than 10,000 times brighter than our Sun, and as a result, its blinding light makes spotting anything nearby difficult.

Experts say that they long suspected that Betelgeuse might have a star nearby and are delighted with the new findings.

Using a technique called speckle imaging, they put together many images to overcome issues that Earth's atmosphere causes telescopes that are based on the ground.

Steve Howell, a NASA scientist who led the research team, said: ⁘Previous papers that predicted Betelgeuse's companion believed that no one would likely ever be able to image it.⁘

According to the US research centre NOIRLab, which operates the Gemini Observatory, the discovery is the first time such a close companion star has been detected orbiting a supergiant.

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