Betelgeuse Has Finally Stopped Dimming, Says Astronomer

• Betelgeuse Has Finally Stopped Dimming, Says Astronomer
  by Bruce Dorminey, https://www.forbes.com/
  The red supergiant star Betelgeuse appears to have finally stopped its unprecedented dimming, Villanova University astronomer Edward Guinan told me this afternoon. He says that although he’s unsure what has caused its strange brightness fluctuations, Betelgeuse is not likely to undergo a supernova explosion anytime soon.
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  “The star has been nearly steady in brightness now over the last 10 days,” said Guinan. We could be at minimum brightness now and very soon the star will slowly brighten if it follows its normal 420 to 430 period of pulsation, says Guinan. Or when the star periodically changes its  brightness, he says. These periodicities are seen in observations of Betelgeuse as far back to the 1930s, says Guinan. But these most recent dips in the star’s brightness have been profound, he says.
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  “In December the star kept getting fainter than we have ever observed in our 25 years of continuous photometry,” says Guinan. Betelgeuse is currently at about 36% of its normal brightness, a change noticeable even to the naked eye, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has noted.
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