This is the first direct image of a star other than the Sun, taken photographically by the then new NASA 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.
The image suggests that a totally new physical phenomenon may be affecting the atmospheres of some stars. Follow-up observations will be needed to help astronomers understand whether the spot is linked to oscillations previously detected in the giant star, or whether it moves systematically across the star's surface under the grip of powerful magnetic fields.
The observations were made by Andrea Dupree of the Harvard- Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA, and Ronald Gilliland of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, who announced their discovery today at the 187th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Antonio, Texas.
The image was taken in ultraviolet light with 'the Faint Object Camera' on March 3, 1995.
However...many many thousands of years ago in the perhaps one of the oldest manuscripts known to man, entitled 'The Book 0f Job', we have the awesomely poetic statements. "Cans't thou bind THE SWEET INFLUENCES OF PLEIADES, or loose THE BANDS OF ORION? Cans't thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Declare if thou hast understanding?"
Amazing huh? Perhaps the so-called 'ancients' knew a little something about the awesome Star Betelgeuse and other heavenly wonders that even now, we know precious little about.You never know huh?:-)
Hubble can resolve the star even though the apparent size is 20,000 times smaller than the width of the full Moon -- roughly equivalent to being able to resolve a car's headlights at a distance of 6,000 miles.
Betelgeuse is so huge that, if it replaced the Sun at the center of our Solar System, its outer atmosphere would extend past the orbit of Jupiter!!!
Photo Credit: Andrea Dupree (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Ronald Gilliland(STScI), NASA and ESA
Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on the Internet via anonymous ftp from ftp.stsci.edu in /pubinfo.
See our Vibrational Ark Link Site for up to date downloadable images from the Hubble Space Telescope
