Betelgeuse’s “Great Dimming” had an unlikely observer: a Japanese weather satellite

Astronomers have a new way of studying stars: taking advantage of weather satellites orbiting Earth.

That’s the conclusion of a new paper that features new data from a Japanese weather satellite that happened to observe the red supergiant star. Betelgeuse during a period of inexplicable dimming. The chance sightings could mean a new tool for astronomers trying to figure out how a red supergiant star loses mass and eventually explodes as a supernova.

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