Astronomers used Japanese weather satellite to monitor the dimming of Betelgeuse
From Figure 1 of the paper. Click for full image and caption.
In a paper published on May 30th, astronomers described how they used the Japanese weather satellite Himawari-8 to monitor the dimming of Betelgeuse that occurred in 2019 and 2020.
“We saw a tweet stating that the moon was in its images,” Daisuke Taniguchi, a Ph.D. student in astronomy at the University of Tokyo and first author of the paper, told Space.com. “I chatted with [third author] Shinsuke Uno on the usage of meteorological satellites for astronomy, found Betelgeuse is in the field of view of Himawari-8 and realized that maybe the Great Dimming of Betelgeuse could be investigated.”
Himawari-8 has been positioned 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth’s equator since 2015 to study weather and natural disasters (including the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano on Jan. 15). Although the satellite is up there to image Earth every 10 minutes, the edges of its images include stars.
Taniguchi and his colleagues were able to see Betelgeuse in images taken throughout Himawari-8’s lifetime and measured its brightness roughly every 1.7 days between January 2017 and June 2021.
The scientists were lucky that the star’s unexpected dimming happened to occur during this time period. The image above is Figure 1 from their paper (which you can read here).
They note that their observations appeared to confirm the theory that the dimming was caused by a dust cloud crossing in front of the star, not the theory that it was caused by a dark spot on the star’s surface. Moreover, their data suggests that dust was relatively close to the star, and could even been created by a burst from the star.
From Figure 1 of the paper. Click for full image and caption.
In a paper published on May 30th, astronomers described how they used the Japanese weather satellite Himawari-8 to monitor the dimming of Betelgeuse that occurred in 2019 and 2020.
“We saw a tweet stating that the moon was in its images,” Daisuke Taniguchi, a Ph.D. student in astronomy at the University of Tokyo and first author of the paper, told Space.com. “I chatted with [third author] Shinsuke Uno on the usage of meteorological satellites for astronomy, found Betelgeuse is in the field of view of Himawari-8 and realized that maybe the Great Dimming of Betelgeuse could be investigated.”
Himawari-8 has been positioned 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth’s equator since 2015 to study weather and natural disasters (including the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano on Jan. 15). Although the satellite is up there to image Earth every 10 minutes, the edges of its images include stars.
Taniguchi and his colleagues were able to see Betelgeuse in images taken throughout Himawari-8’s lifetime and measured its brightness roughly every 1.7 days between January 2017 and June 2021.
The scientists were lucky that the star’s unexpected dimming happened to occur during this time period. The image above is Figure 1 from their paper (which you can read here).
They note that their observations appeared to confirm the theory that the dimming was caused by a dust cloud crossing in front of the star, not the theory that it was caused by a dark spot on the star’s surface. Moreover, their data suggests that dust was relatively close to the star, and could even been created by a burst from the star.