Two more days of work outfits. Tue: Keep Austin Kawaii tee (from my friend @the_lone_bamf), Cat & Jack triceratops shorts, striped sport sox, black glitter wing sneakers; Wed: vintage Um Jammer Lammy Milk Can promo tee (omiyage from my lovely Japanese friends), Phisockat leggings, Cat & Jack sequin unicorn vans, and the excellent Peepi sox from Wish! #ootd #fafafafafashionbeepbeep #EverydayFashion #CatAndJack #keepaustinkawaii #triceratops #umjammerlammy #milkcan #promotionalitems #vintage #AllMyClothesFromTheKidsSection #IHaveTheBestFriends #omiyage #peepi #wishfinds #phisockat #leggings #glitter #PunkRockGirl #ComicShopGirl #GamerGirl #over50style #agingdisgracefully #Fujoshi4Life #MyStyle https://www.instagram.com/p/CQP4z1bDwyr/?utm_medium=tumblr
… The study includes new analysis of images taken in 2019 and 2020 of the star, which is just over 700 light-years away from Earth, showing that during its Great Dimming, Betelgeuse was actually being obscured by its own stellar exhalations.
“We have directly witnessed the formation of so-called stardust,” Montargès, who led the observation campaign using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, said in a statement.
Red supergiants are the largest stars in the universe, representing a stage in the evolution of giant stars in which they expand outward, begin to cool and lose mass as they progress toward going out with a big blast in the end.
The observations of Betelgeuse seem to show the Great Dimming was actually caused by just such a mass loss incident. The star expelled a clump of gas near a region on the southern portion of its surface that developed a cold patch shortly thereafter. This cooling of the ejected gas allowed it to condense into literal stardust.
“This process generated a dense southern dust cloud that temporarily blocked much of Betelgeuse’s light, giving us what we saw as the Great Dimming,” explained University of Washington astronomer Emily M. Levesque, who was not a part of the research team, in a companion commentary published in Nature.
In addition to explaining the weird behavior of Betelgeuse, the researchers say the episode adds to our wider understanding of the universe. …
