“[Betelgeuse’s] trademark pulsation has also stopped—hopefully temporarily—perhaps because the interior convection cells ‘are sloshing around like an imbalanced washing machine tub’ as the photosphere begins the slow process of rebuilding itself.”
“[Betelgeuse’s] trademark pulsation has also stopped—hopefully temporarily—perhaps because the interior convection cells ‘are sloshing around like an imbalanced washing machine tub’ as the photosphere begins the slow process of rebuilding itself.”
“Dupree and her colleagues suggested that as the star expanded in one of its usual cycles, a portion of the surface accelerated much more rapidly, thanks to a convection cell that had traveled from the interior of the star to its surface. Those two events combined pushed out sufficient material far enough from the star that it cooled down, forming stardust. That dust could account for the dimming.”