Plant diseases can be infectious (transmitted from plant to plant) or noninfectious. Noninfectious diseases are usually referred to as disorders. Common plant disorders are caused by deficiencies in plant nutrients, by waterlogged or polluted soil, and by polluted air.
Such refinements in the images of Betelgeuse's atmosphere has been helping to resolve the mystery of how massive amounts of dust and gas are expelled from red supergiant stars, an important source of enrichment for the interstellar medium.
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant star which is nearing the end of its life. As it has swelled in size over the past few hundred thousand years, currently measuring around 1000 times the size of our Sun, the massive star has been shedding its outer layers.