Betelgeuse ’s mystifying dimming across 2019 and 2020 was a big puzzle for stargazer . It turned out the cause was a mixture of the wizard ’s regular change andthe dismissal of materialthat when cooling down formed dust that obscured the Light Within of the notorious star . Astronomers have now found a similar scenario around another virtuoso , VY Canis Majoris , but this one is even more spectacular than Betelgeuse .
VY Canis Majoris is a cherry-red hypergiant star . It is large , more monumental , and a plenty more fighting thanBetelgeuse , and about 300,000 times brighter than our Sun . It is so great that if it was set where the Sun is , it would strain past the orbit of Jupiter .
When Betelgeuse experienced its unusual dimming , it fade so much itdropped out of the top 20 bright starsin the nighttime sky . The situation for VY Canis Majoris is much bad . It was a wispy but seeable hotshot up to 200 years ago but since then we can no longer see it with the naked eye . A Modern report print inThe Astronomical Journalshows the reason for this is also massive ejections of stuff .
" VY Canis Majoris is behave a lot like Betelgeuse on steroids , " head source Dr Roberta Humphreys from the University of Minnesota , Minneapolis said in astatement .
" In VY Canis Majoris we see something similar , but on a much larger scale of measurement . monumental ejections of fabric which tally to its very deep fading , which is likely due to debris that temporarily blocks luminousness from the star . "
late oeuvre using Hubble show eruptions from the star dating between 100 and 200 years ago . The new notice were able-bodied to seem much closer at the hotshot , at the more late eruptions , and measure their size of it and velocity .
The team was capable to date these events more incisively to make a more accurate picture show of what ’s go on around the hotshot . The bam takes the anatomy of large knots , similar to solar protuberances , extending for 100 of billions of kilometre from the star . Some of these structures weigh twice the mass of Jupiter .
" It ’s amazing the star can do it . The beginning of these high mass - loss episode in both VY Canis Majoris and Betelgeuse is probably due to great - scale aerofoil activity , declamatory convective cells like on the Sun . But on VY Canis Majoris , the cells may be as large as the whole Sun or larger , " Humphreys say .
" This is believably more common in red supergiant than scientists thought and VY Canis Majoris is an extreme case . It may even be the main mechanics that ’s driving the mass personnel casualty , which has always been a bit of a whodunit for red supergiant . "
This uttermost activity has not been seen in other stars like this , which suggests it only happens for a brief period of maybe a few thousand years . So we are lucky to be catching VY Canis Majoris in this unbelievable phase .
