Overview

• Scientists used Alopeke speckle-interferometry at the Gemini North Telescope to capture the first resolved images consistent with a hidden companion within Betelgeuse’s extended atmosphere.
• The candidate companion is about six orders of magnitude fainter than Betelgeuse and has an estimated mass of roughly 1.6 solar masses.
• Study authors warn the object could be an unrelated foreground or background star, and they plan follow-up observations around 2027 when its maximum separation will aid in verification.
• Confirmation of a bound companion would explain Betelgeuse’s century-old six-year brightness variation cycle that previous models could not fully resolve.
• If truly bound, the companion will spiral into Betelgeuse under its gravity and be engulfed in approximately 10,000 years, separate from the star’s distant supernova fate.