Betelgeuse

Last August, astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe Betelgeuse, found evidence that the star was ejecting so much material into space that it formed a dust cloud, which blocked all light coming from its surface.

Stargazers have also noticed that Betelgeuse, Procyon, and Sirius make up an almost perfectly equilateral Winter Triangle.

Even if you don’t know it by name, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse is one of the most familiar sights in the heavens above—a gleaming ruddy dot at the shoulder of the constellation Orion. Although already quite difficult to overlook, Betelgeuse has become even more eye-catching across the past few years because of major changes in its appearance—unexpected fluctuations in its brightness that remain poorly understood.