1-minute video: https://noirlab.edu/public/videos/noirlab2523b/
The paper is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.15749
The detection appears to be statistically very marginal, 1.5sigma, and the image contains a very similar bright spot on the opposite side of the star (which, for some reason, does not warrant a detection claim).
Wow, so it's currently shining purely from gravitational energy release, not nuclear reactions. I hadn't realized that it was possible or that we'd be able to see something of the sort.
At least they got to see it before Betelgeuse went supernovae. Do we have examples of the results of the companion star when the main star lets go?
The sequel wasn't as good.
Could this explain why Betelgeuse's brightness seems to vary so much?
edit: apparently, yep, that's why.
Any comments from Ford Prefect about this?
dumb question: If a pre-sequence star is assimilated into a larger EOL star, does all the newly assimilated fuel delay or accellerate the larger star's demise?
The submitted URL was https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2523/, but for some reason is frequently returning the Spanish version of the article. We replaced it with a link to a third-party article and will include the noirlab.edu link at the top.
Gemini North is a telescope, not some new feature of Google's AI model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_Observatory
>Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals never-before-seen companion to Betelgeuse, solving millennia-old mystery
Is it Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice?
The companion star "has an estimated mass of about 1.5 times that of the Sun and appears to be an A- or B-type main pre-sequence star, i.e. a hot, young, bluish-white star that has not yet begun to burn hydrogen in its core... The companion is located at a relatively close distance to Betelgeuse, about 4 times the distance between Earth and the Sun. This discovery is the first time a stellar companion has been detected orbiting so close to a red supergiant star. Even more surprising is that the companion orbits inside Betelgeuse's outer atmosphere."