PHOENIX — Like a motorboat doing doughnuts in a lake, Betelgeuse’s companion star leaves a wake in the giant star’s atmosphere.
Signs of the smaller star’s trail around the red supergiant are the best evidence yet that Betelgeuse’s buddy actually exists.
“It confirms there really is an object there creating a wake, really, honestly, truly,” says astrophysicist Andrea Dupree, who presented the evidence at the American Astronomical Society meeting on January 5.
Betelgeuse marks one of the shoulders of the constellation Orion. Its brightness changes periodically. Over centuries of observations, astronomers have identified two distinct cycles, or periods, of brightening and dimming, one lasting about 400 days and one