Betelgeuse brightness dims as it enters helium-burning phase; not close to exploding: Study

The unprecedented drop in its brightness observed last year led to speculations that the star may be about to explode. Researchers from Ken’ichi Nomoto at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe conducted a rigorous examination of the star and concluded that the star is in the early core helium-burning phase and has smaller mass and radius, and is closer to Earth, than earlier thought. They inferred from the study that the smaller brightness variations of the star were driven by pulsations and the dimming occurred due to a dust cloud. The research team led by D Meridith Joyce from the Australian National University analysed variations in brightness of Betelgeuse by using evolutionary hydronamic and seismic modelling.