The constellation Orion is no stranger to stargazers because it is one of the most recognisable constellations in the night sky. However, have you noticed in the past few months that Betelgeuse, which represents shoulder of Orion, looks slightly dimmer than before?

Betelgeuse is a huge star. If you put it in the position of the Sun, it will be large enough to swallow Jupiter. A huge red star like Betelgeuse is called a "red supergiant". It violently explodes when it dies, the light from the explosion can be seen at a very far distance. This phenomenon is called a "supernova explosion".

The sudden and unusual change in brightness of Betelgeuse has caused people to speculate that it is about to explode into a supernova. However, some researchers have indicated that the average temperature of Betelgeuse is much higher than that of a star going to explode, and proposed that its recent dimming may be due to the blocking of light by the dust gathered around that thrown from its surface.

Betelgeuse is about 700 light-years away from us. The light from this star takes about 700 years to reach us. It means that we are actually observing the star as it was about 700 years ago. The wonders of the universe are just so fascinating.

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope captured a photo showing the brightness distribution on the surface of Betelgeuse and released via the website below:
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2003/