Betelgeuse’s companion star revealed in new images (www.sciencenews.org)

submitted 6 days ago by artifex@piefed.social to c/space@beehaw.org

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Supergiant Betelgeuse was recently discovered to have a companion star - it's bright blue, not yet fusing hydrogen, and actually orbiting so close that it's inside Betelgeuse's outer atmosphere! I wonder what it'll be named.

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[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 3 points 6 days ago

the star hasn’t yet started fusing hydrogen

Then what is it fusing? I didn't think there was a pre-fusion state for a star by definition.

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It would be a protostar, I believe. As the gas required for the star collapses in to itself from gravity, it will get still get super hot as density increases. It still takes a bit for the heat and pressure to reach a point to start fusion.

Edit: Conflicting report that it may have started fusing hydrogen: https://www.iflscience.com/it-looks-like-weve-found-betel-buddy-betelgeuses-suspected-companion-star-80082

this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025

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