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Astronomers confirm Betelgeuse's companion star, predicted a century ago

NASA says its Ames scientist spotted Betelgeuse's companion using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii and a NASA-built camera.

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The constellation Orion sparkles amidst a densely packed starfield. The stars in Orion glow in light blue, with sparse red clouds extending from the upper right to lower left of the constellation. An inset box in the upper left of the image shows a zoomed-in view of a bright yellow star on Orion’s shoulder. Within the inset image, against a black background, a bright orange-yellow star is labeled “Betelgeuse” and a faint blue blob to the left of it is labeled “Companion.” The image is watermarked “Data: NASA/JPL/NOIRLab” and “Visualization: NOIRLab/Eckhard Slawik.”

TLDR

NASA describes the finding as confirmation of a century-old hypothesis that Betelgeuse, the 10th-brightest star in our night sky, has a very close companion. The agency says one of its Ames scientists spotted the star using Hawaii's Gemini North telescope and a NASA-built camera.

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2 Sources, first seen 20d ago