The Great Dimming of Betelgeuse seen by the Himawari-8 meteorological satellite

Abstract

Betelgeuse, one of the most studied red supergiant stars1,2, dimmed in the optical range by ~1.2 mag between late 2019 and early 2020, reaching a historical minimum3–5 called ‘the Great Dimming’. Thanks to enormous observational effort to date, two hypotheses remain that can explain the Dimming1: a decrease in the effective temperature6,7 and an enhancement of the extinction caused by newly produced circumstellar dust8,9. However, the lack of multiwavelength monitoring observations, especially in the mid-infrared, where emission from circumstellar dust can be detected, has prevented us from closely examining these hypotheses. Here we present 4.5 yr, 16-band photometry of Betelgeuse between 2017 and 2021 in the 0.45–13.5 μm wavelength range making use of images taken by the Himawari-810 geostationary meteorological satellite. By examining the optical and near-infrared light curves, we show that both a decreased effective temperature and increased dust extinction may have contributed by almost equal amounts to the Great Dimming. Moreover, using the mid-infrared light curves, we find that the enhanced circumstellar extinction actually contributed to the Dimming. Thus, the Dimming event of Betelgeuse provides us with an opportunity to examine the mechanism responsible for the mass loss of red supergiants, which affects the fate of massive stars as supernovae11.