A dusty veil shading Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming
M. Montarg\`es, E. Cannon, E. Lagadec, A. de Koter, P. Kervella, J., Sanchez-Bermudez, C. Paladini, F. Cantalloube, L. Decin, P. Scicluna, K., Kravchenko, A. K. Dupree, S. Ridgway, M. Wittkowski, N. Anugu, R. Norris, G., Rau, G. Perrin, A. Chiavassa, S. Kraus, J. D. Monnier

TL;DR
This paper investigates the Great Dimming of Betelgeuse, revealing that a dust cloud caused by localized cooling led to inhomogeneous mass loss and significant brightness variation, enhancing understanding of red supergiant behavior.
Contribution
It provides high-resolution observations and modeling that identify dust formation due to localized cooling as a key factor in Betelgeuse's dimming event, revealing inhomogeneous mass loss mechanisms.
Findings
Southern hemisphere was ten times darker during dimming
Dust clump formation linked to local temperature decrease
Brightness variations evolved over weeks
Abstract
Red supergiants are the most common final evolutionary stage of stars that have initial masses between 8 and 35 times that of the Sun. During this stage, which lasts roughly 100,000 years1, red supergiants experience substantial mass loss. However, the mechanism for this mass loss is unknown. Mass loss may affect the evolutionary path, collapse and future supernova light curve of a red supergiant, and its ultimate fate as either a neutron star or a black hole. From November 2019 to March 2020, Betelgeuse - the second-closest red supergiant to Earth (roughly 220 parsecs, or 724 light years, away) - experienced a historic dimming of its visible brightness. Usually having an apparent magnitude between 0.1 and 1.0, its visual brightness decreased to 1.614 +/- 0.008 magnitudes around 7-13 February 2020 - an event referred to as Betelgeuse's Great Dimming. Here we report…
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