by tte-77
Dazzling nebula around Betelgeuse - Credit: ESO/P. Kervella
One of the brightest stars in the night sky is the red supergiant Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion. This star is also one of the biggest, being almost the size of Jupiter’s orbit. This new image released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) shows the surrounding nebula which is much bigger than Betelgeuse itself, stretching over 37 billion miles away from the star’s surface which is 400 times the distance of the Earth from the sun.
Shown in the image, the small red circle in the middle has a diameter four and half times that of the Earth’s orbit – the red circle represents the location of Betelgeuse’s visible surface. The black disc corresponds to a very bright part of the image. Astronomers masked it to enhance visibility of the fainter nebula. The nebula cannot be seen in visible light, as the very bright Betelgeuse completely outshines it.
ESO astronomers took the infrared image of Betelgeuse using an instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) called VISIR (VLT imager and spectrometer for mid-infrared).
Source: EarthSky
Filed under: Astronomy, Image gallery, Nebula, Stars, tte-77 Tagged: 2011, Astronomy, Betelgeuse, circle, earth, ESO, images, massive, Nebula, Observatory, Orion, photography, postaweek2011, red, skywatching, space, star, Stars, sun, supernova, telescope, Very Large Telescope, VLT
