{"id":609524,"date":"2026-07-29T06:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T06:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/609524\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T06:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T06:40:17","slug":"astronomers-directly-image-betelgeuses-long-suspected-stellar-companion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/609524\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomers Directly Image Betelgeuse\u2019s Long-Suspected Stellar Companion"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a century of speculation, astronomers using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured the clearest evidence yet that the red supergiant Betelgeuse is orbited by a faint companion star.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

This VLT\/SPHERE image shows the clearest image ever of what likely is Betelgeuse B. Image credit: ESO \/ Montarg\u00e8s et al.<\/p>\n

Betelgeuse<\/a>, the second brightest star in the constellation Orion, is an 8-million-year-old red supergiant located approximately 724 light-years away from Earth.<\/p>\n

With a radius around 1,400 times larger than the Sun\u2019s, Betelgeuse is one of the biggest stars known.<\/p>\n

Also known as Alpha Orionis or Alpha Ori, it is also one of the most luminous stars known, emitting more light than 100,000 Suns.<\/p>\n

The star is nearing the end of its life span, and when it explodes, the event will be bright enough to see during the day for weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have shown that Betelgeuse is not single, it is accompanied by a faint stellar companion,\u201d said Dr. Miguel Montarg\u00e8s, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris.<\/p>\n

Dr. Montarg\u00e8s and colleagues detected a faint point of light near Betelgeuse using the SPHERE-ZIMPOL instrument, an extreme adaptive optics system designed for high-contrast imaging.<\/p>\n

The observations were taken on December 3 and 6, 2024, timed to coincide with the predicted point of maximum separation between Betelgeuse and a hypothetical companion<\/a>, dubbed Betelgeuse B.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is remarkable to see how SPHERE and advanced post-processing techniques, originally developed to find exoplanets, also excel at detecting a companion around a massive, evolved star like Betelgeuse,\u201d said Dr. Anthony Boccaletti, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be certain that the companion is really there, we still need to observe it in one year on the other side of the star, but there is very little space left for doubt,\u201d Dr. Montarg\u00e8s added.<\/p>\n

The newly imaged source sat about 52 milliarcseconds from Betelgeuse, corresponding to a projected distance of roughly 8.8 AU (astronomical units).<\/p>\n

That places the companion\u2019s orbit in a range consistent with the 5.5-to-6-year periods estimated by earlier orbital models.<\/p>\n

The astronomers estimate Betelgeuse B is a young star of about 2.6 to 3.1 solar masses.<\/p>\n

The absence of hydrogen-alpha emission, ultraviolet light, or X-rays from the object fits with it being an ordinary young main-sequence star rather than an even younger, more active protostar.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I thought we did not have the sensitivity to detect Betelgeuse B as it was predicted. Because it is more massive than predicted, we see it,\u201d Dr. Montarg\u00e8s said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we can still discover a nearby companion, more massive and brighter than the Sun, around such a well-studied star is remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are among the best moments in science: seeing something new, unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s results<\/a> appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.<\/p>\n

_____<\/p>\n

M. Montarg\u00e8s et al. 2026. VLT\/SPHERE images of the candidate companion of Betelgeuse. A&A 711, L12; doi: 10.1051\/0004-6361\/202661023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a century of speculation, astronomers using ESO\u2019s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured the clearest evidence yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[257374,257375,19915,18,22912,19,17,101423,133,451,14713,11186,160069,22917],"class_list":["post-609524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-betelgeuse","tag-betelgeuse-b","tag-binary-star","tag-eire","tag-eso","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-red-supergiant","tag-science","tag-space","tag-sphere","tag-star","tag-supergiant-star","tag-vlt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117001901525109081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}