--- title: "One of the Brightest Stars in the Sky Is Acting Bizarre, Scientists Say" description: "Thanks to observations made by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, scientists may have an answer as to what the hell happened to Betelgeuse." date: "2022-08-12" modified: "2022-08-12" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/betelgeuse-acting-bizarre" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "betelgeuse" - "coronal mass ejections" - "red supergiant" - "the digest" --- # One of the Brightest Stars in the Sky Is Acting Bizarre, Scientists Say ![Thanks to observations made by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, scientists may have an answer as to what the hell happened to Betelgeuse.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Blow Out Betelgeuse, the red supergiant star in the Orion constellation that's one of the brightest stars in the night sky, was rocked by a powerful explosion in late 2019. The dramatic event, on such a prominent star, has puzzled astronomers ever since. At first, scientists suggested it might have erupted in a supernova. But according to 2020 data, [the star survived]() the ordeal, despite dimming considerably in the years since. Now, thanks to observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, scientists may have a more satisfying answer. They suggest the star [experienced an enormous surface mass ejection](), not unlike our Sun's coronal mass ejections (CME) — except that it sent the red supergiant spinning and wobbling like an old washing machine. "Betelgeuse continues doing some very unusual things right now; the interior is sort of bouncing," said Andrea Dupree at Harvard's Center for Astrophysics, author of a [new paper]() submitted to *The Astrophysics Journal*, in a [NASA statement](). ## Sort of Bouncing The event was many orders of magnitude bigger than one of our Sun's coronal mass ejections, blasting off 400 *billion* times the mass than a typical one, [according to NASA](). In fact, it blew off the mass equivalent of several of the Earth's Moons. So what caused the epic blowout? Dupree's team suggests that shockwaves from closer to the star's center blew off chunks of its photosphere, the lowest layer of its blazing stellar atmosphere, causing a dust cover that's now causing the star's surface to cool and crust over. It's the first time we've witnessed a star having its surface being rocked by this powerful of an event, and it's still raising more answers than questions. "We've never before seen a huge mass ejection of the surface of a star," Dupree said. "We are left with something going on that we don't completely understand." **READ MORE:**[Hubble Sees Red Supergiant Star Betelgeuse Slowly Recovering After Blowing Its Top]() \[NASA\] **More on Betelgeuse:** *[Scientists Puzzled by Star That Exploded in Supernova But Somehow Survived]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()