变暗的参宿四
2020 January 2 The Fainting of Betelgeuse Image Credit & Copyright: Jimmy Westlake (Colorado Mountain College) Explanation: Begirt with many a blazing star, Orion the Hunter is one of the most recognizable constellations. In this night skyscape the Hunter’s stars rise in the northern hemisphere’s winter sky on December 30, 2019, tangled in bare trees near Newnan, Georgia, USA. Red super giant star Betelgeuse stands out in yellowish hues at Orion’s shoulder left of center, but it no longer so strongly rivals the blue supergiant star Rigel at the Hunter’s foot. In fact, skygazers around planet Earth can see a strikingly fainter Betelgeuse now, its brightness fading by more than half in the final months of 2019. Betelgeuse has long been known to be a…