The Atmosphere of Betelgeuse
This is the first direct image of a star other than the Sun, made with the Hubble Space Telescope. Called Alpha Orionis, or Betelgeuse, it is a red supergiant star marking the shoulder of the winter constellation Orion the Hunter.
The Hubble image reveals a huge ultraviolet atmosphere with a mysterious hot spot on the stellar behemoth's surface. The enormous bright spot, more than ten times the diameter of Earth, is at least 2, 000 Kelvin degrees hotter than the surface of the star.
Credit:
About the Image
NASA press release
| Id: | opo9604b |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 10 December 1996, 06:00 |
| Size: | 100 x 100 px |
About the Object
| Name: | Betelgeuse |
| Type: | • Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Red Supergiant • Stars Images/Videos |
| Distance: | 650 light years |
