SPHERE’s view of Betelgeuse in January 2019

Eso_eso2003b_1024

eso_eso2003b February 14th, 2020

Credit: ESO/M. Montargès et al.

The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, in the constellation of Orion, has been undergoing unprecedented dimming. This stunning image of the star’s surface was taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in January 2019, before the star started to dim. When compared with the image taken in December 2019, it shows how much the star has faded and how its apparent shape has changed.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2003b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Betelgeuse
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Red Supergiant
Eso_eso2003b_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 55m 10.4s
DEC = 7° 24’ 23.7”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
0.0 x 0.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Orion

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange VLT (SPHERE) Optical (H-alpha) 645.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Eso_eso2003b_1280
×
ID
eso2003b
Subject Category
B.3.1.5  
Subject Name
Betelgeuse
Credits
ESO/M. Montargès et al.
Release Date
2020-02-14T14:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2003b/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope
Instrument
SPHERE
Color Assignment
Orange
Band
Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha
Central Wavelength
645
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
88.7934272304, 7.40659296029
Reference Dimension
816.0, 816.0
Reference Pixel
408.0, 408.0
Scale
-1.24392680097e-07, 1.24392680097e-07
Rotation
-0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
https://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso2003b
Resource URL
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/original/eso2003b.tif
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2020-02-06T15:37:40+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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